Question

ATT Cellular charges a $15 flat fee for a text messaging plan and $0.25 per text. Bellsouth Wireless doesn’t charge a flat fee, but it charges $0.30 per text. What inequality and solution will represent the number t of texts for which Bellsouth Wireless is cheaper than ATT Cellular?

Answer 1

To find when Bellsouth Wireless is cheaper than ATT, we must solve the inequality $0.30t < $15 + $0.25t, which simplifies to t < 300. This means Bellsouth Wireless is cheaper for fewer than 300 texts.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine when Bellsouth Wireless is cheaper than ATT Cellular for text messaging, we need to formulate an inequality. ATT Cellular has a $15 flat fee plus $0.25 per text, while Bellsouth Wireless charges only $0.30 per text without a flat fee.

The cost for ATT Cellular:

$15 + $0.25t

The cost for Bellsouth Wireless:

$0.30t

To find out when Bellsouth Wireless is cheaper, the cost of using Bellsouth should be less than the cost of using ATT Cellular:

$0.30t < $15 + $0.25t

Let’s solve the inequality:

1. Subtract $0.25t from both sides:
2. $0.05t < $15
3. Divide both sides by $0.05:
4. t < 300

This means that for fewer than 300 texts, Bellsouth Wireless is cheaper than ATT Cellular.