Question

Caroline borrows $50 from her parents to buy a dress she really likes. In return for her painting the garage, her parents agree to deduct $4 from what she owes for each hour she works. For what number of hours will her debt be below $30?

a. 6 hours
b. 7 hours
c. 8 hours
d. 9 hours

Answer 1

To reduce her debt below $30, Caroline needs to work for more than 5 hours. The smallest whole number greater than 5 is 6, so she must work at least 6 hours.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student is asking how many hours Caroline needs to work in order to reduce her debt to below $30 if she is getting $4 deducted from her $50 debt for every hour she works. To solve this, we will set up an inequality where x represents the number of hours worked:

50 - 4x < 30

Subtracting 50 from both sides of the inequality, we get:

-4x < -20

Dividing both sides by -4 and reversing the inequality sign (since we are dividing by a negative number), we get:

x > 5

Since x must be greater than 5 and x must be a whole number of hours (since you can't work a fraction of an hour in this scenario), the least number of whole hours she has to work to get her debt below $30 is 6.

Therefore, option a. 6 hours is the correct answer.