Calculate Unit Price: Finding Cost per Pencil in $2.5 ÷ 5 Problem

To solve this problem, we'll calculate the cost per pencil as follows:

Robert bought 5 pencils for a total of $\$2.5$. We need to find the cost of each pencil by dividing the total cost by the number of pencils:

• Total cost = $\$2.5$
• Number of pencils = 5
• Cost per pencil = Total cost / Number of pencils

Perform the calculation:

$\text{Cost per pencil} = \frac{2.5}{5}$

Calculating $\frac{2.5}{5}$, we convert 2.5 to a fraction: $\frac{5}{2}$. So, the division becomes:

$\frac{5}{2} \div 5 = \frac{5}{2} \times \frac{1}{5} = \frac{5}{10} = \frac{1}{2}$

Therefore, each pencil cost $\$0.5$ or $\frac{1}{2}$ dollar.

The correct choice reflecting this calculation is: $\frac{1}{2}$.

This confirms with the provided correct answer.

The solution to the problem is that each pencil cost $\frac{1}{2}$ dollar.