Question

Suppose you are going into business mowing lawns. You

have purchased a lawn mower for $200. Gas and oil costs
you $1.50 per lawn. You are charging $15 per lawn. How
many lawns must you mow to break even?

Answer 1

To break even in your lawn mowing business, you would need to mow at least 14 lawns.

Step-by-step explanation:

To break even in your lawn mowing business, you need to cover the costs of the lawn mower and the gas and oil for each lawn mowed. Let's calculate the total cost per lawn:

Cost = cost of lawn mower + (cost of gas and oil per lawn)

Plugging in the values: Cost = $200 + (1.50 x 1) = $201.50

To find the number of lawns you must mow to break even, divide the total cost by the price charged per lawn:

Number of lawns = Total cost / Price per lawn = $201.50 / $15 = 13.4 (approximately)

Since you can't mow a fraction of a lawn, you would need to mow at least 14 lawns to break even.

Answer 2

15 lawns

Step-by-step explanation:

Let

x ----> the number of lawns

y ----> the profit mowing lawns

we know that

The profit is equal to the revenue minus the costs

so

`y=15x-1.50x-200`

`y=13.50x-200`

Break even means that the revenue is equal to the cost (profit is equal to zero)

so

For y=0

`0=13.50x-200`

`13.50x=200`

`x=14.8`

Round up

15 lawns