Question

Erik spends $680 for cable television service. The cable company offers a deal that promises Erik 3 free months of cable if he signs a contract with them for $40 per month.

Complete the equation below to find the number of months that Erik will have cable television service with this deal. Use m to represent the number of months.

Answer 1

Explanation:

The cable company offers Erik 3 free months of cable if he signs a contract with them for $40 per month. This means that Erik will pay for (m - 3) months of cable service, since he will get 3 months for free. So the cost of the cable service for (m - 3) months is:

Cost = $40 per month x (m - 3) months

Cost = $40m - $120

We know that Erik spent $680 for the cable television service. So we can set up an equation to relate the cost to the number of months:

$40m - $120 = $680

To solve for m, we can isolate the variable on one side of the equation:

$40m = $800

m = 20

Therefore, Erik will have cable television service for 20 months with this deal.