1. **State the problem:** A group of friends has 69.75 to spend on parking and admission to an amusement park. Parking costs 17.25, and each ticket costs 17.50. We want to find the number of people, $p$, who can go to the park. 2. **Write the equation:** The total cost is the sum of parking and tickets: $$17.25 + 17.50p = 69.75$$ 3. **Isolate $p$:** Subtract 17.25 from both sides: $$17.50p = 69.75 - 17.25$$ 4. **Simplify the right side:** $$17.50p = 52.50$$ 5. **Solve for $p$ by dividing both sides by 17.50:** $$p = \frac{52.50}{17.50}$$ 6. **Calculate the value:** $$p = 3$$ **Answer:** 3 people can go to the amusement park with the given budget.