Question

Owen is a songwriter who collects royalties on his songs whenever they are played in a commercial or a movie. Owen will earn $50 every time one of his songs is played in a commercial and he will earn $140 every time one of his songs is played in a movie. Owen's songs were played on 4 more commercials than movies, and his total earnings on the royalties from all commercials and movies was $770. Determine the number of commercials and the number of movies on which Owen's songs were played.

Answer 1

His songs were played 4 times in a commercial, and 3 times in a movie.

Explanation:

Let x represent the number of times his songs were played in a commercial, and y represent the number of times his songs were played in a movie.

Since we know Owen's songs were played on 4 more commercials than in movies, we can write the expression

x = y + 4

Owen gets $50 every time one of his songs is played in a commercial and $140 every time one of his songs is played in a movie, so we can add these numbers into the equation below.

140y + 50x = $770

We can use the equation two lines above and substitute it into this equation so it now becomes:

140y + 50(y +4) = 770

Now we operate the equation so it becomes:

140y + 50y + 200 = 770

Now we reduce and add like terms.

190y = 770 - 200 = 570

190y = 570

570 / 190 = 3 (3 movies)

x = y + 4 = 7

y = 3

x = 3 + 4 = 7

So therefore Owen's songs were played 4 times in a commercial (x), and 3 times in a movie. (y)

Hope this helps.