Question

Starting SalaryYearly Salary IncreaseCompany A24,0003,000Company B30,0002,400Company C36,0002,000After how many years are the salaries offered by Company A and Company B the same?The salaries for Company A and Company B will be the same afteryears.

Answer 1

For Company A, the starting salary is 24,000 and the yearly increase is 3,000.

For Company B, the starting salary is 30,000 and the yearly increase is 2,400

We can express it by :

`y=a+bx`

where y is the salary

a is the starting salary

b is the yearly increase

and

x is the number of years

So for Company A, we have :

`y=24,000+3,000x`

For Company B, we have :

`y=30,000+2,400x`

The problem is asking how many years will the two companies have the same salary.

so y in company A must be equal to y in company B.

Equating both equations :

`\begin{gathered} 24000+3000x=30000+2400x \\ 3000x-2400x=30000-24000 \\ 600x=6000 \\ x=10 \end{gathered}`

The answer is 10 years