Question

Four students plan to rent a minivan for a weekend trip and equally share the rental const of the van. By adding two more people, each person can save $10 on their share of the cost. How much is the total rental cost of the van?

Answer 1

The total cost of the van rental is $60.

Explanation:

If the initial cost of renting the van is C dollars, then each student would pay C/4 dollars.

When two more people are added, there would now be 6 people to share the cost, and each would save $10 on their share. This means that each student would now pay (C - 10) / $6.

We can write an equation for this :

C/4 = (C - 10) / 6

To solve this equation, we can multiply both sides by 12 to get rid of the denominators:

3C = 2(C - 10)

Next, we can distribute 2 inside the parenthesis:

3C = 2C - 20

Subtracting 2C from both sides of the equation, we obtain :

C = 20

So, the total cost of renting the van is $20 multiplied by the number of students, which is 4, or 20 x 4 = $80.

However, the riddle asks for the total cost of the van rental, so if we add the $10 saved by each student, we get $80 + 10 = $90.

So the total cost of the van rental is $90.