Final answer:
To stay within a $200 budget for a two-day car rental, you can drive up to 480 miles. Subtract the two-day rental cost ($80) from the total budget and divide the remainder by the cost per mile ($0.25) to find the number of miles.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate how many miles you can drive on a two-day road trip and stay within a $200 budget for a rental car that charges $40 per day plus 25 cents per mile, you must first calculate the total cost of the car rental without miles, and then determine how much of the budget is left for mileage.
The total cost for renting the car for two days is 2 days x $40/day = $80.
Therefore, the remaining budget for mileage is $200 - $80 = $120.
Since the cost per mile is 25 cents, or $0.25, we divide the remaining budget by the cost per mile to find the maximum number of miles that can be driven: $120 / $0.25 = 480 miles.
Thus, you can drive up to 480 miles on your road trip and stay within the $200 rental car budget.