We know that Elmer bought 4 pens for $1.96. Let’s use the variable p to represent the cost of each pen. Then we can write the following equation:
4p = 1.96
To solve for p, we can divide both sides of the equation by 4:
4p/4 = 1.96/4
p = 0.49
Therefore, the cost of each pen is $0.49