Question

an employment agency specializing in temporary construction help pays heavy equipment operators $133 per day and general laborers $81 per day. if thirty people were hiredand the payroll was $3314 how many heavy equipment operators were employed? how many laborers?

Answer 1

For this case, the first thing we must do is define variables.

We have then:

x: number of heavy equipment operators

y: number of general laborers

We write the system of equations that models the problem:

`133x + 81y = 3314`

`x + y = 30`

From here, we clear the value of the unknowns.

From equation two we have:

`y = 30-x`

Substituting in equation 1 we have:

`133x + 81 (30-x) = 3314`

`133x-81x + 2430 = 3314`

`133x-81x + 2430 = 3314`

`52x = 3314-2430`

`52x = 884`

`x = 17`

Then, the value of y is:

`y = 30-x`

`y = 30-17`

`y = 13`

Answer:

were employed:

heavy equipment operators: 17

general laborers: 13