Question

Russel wants to buy 3 identical gift cards. He wants to make sure the total cost is $2 above or below $60. Which of the following equations represents the situation?

a) |3c - 60| - 2 = 0
b) |60 - 3c| - 2 = 0
c) |3c - 2| - 60 = 0
d) |3c + 2| - 60 = 0

Answer 1

The correct equation to represent the situation where the total cost of 3 identical gift cards being within $2 above or below $60 is option a) |3c - 60| - 2 = 0.

Step-by-step explanation:

Russel wants to make sure the total cost of 3 identical gift cards is within $2 above or below $60. To represent this situation mathematically, we want an equation that expresses the cost of the gift cards, $c$, per card. The total cost for the 3 gift cards is $3c$. To express the condition that this total cost is within $2 above or below $60, we use the absolute value. The equation should equate to 0 when the absolute difference is exactly $2. Option a) |3c - 60| - 2 = 0 correctly represents this scenario, since if the absolute difference is $2, subtracting 2 will result in zero.