Question

Gonzalo works at the Apple Store. He makes $60 each shift but can make more money byworking some overtime hours. He makes $15 for each overtime hour he works. Write anequation to express the amount of money Gonzalo could make in a day. Let y be the totalamount of money, and let x be the number of overtime hours. How much money will Gonzalomake if he works his normal shift and then 4 hours of overtime? Be sure to first model thissituation by creating an equation using both variables. Solve your equation (show all of yourwork) and write a complete sentence.

Answer 1

Let y be the total amount of money that Gonzalo earns in a day, and x the overtime hours. We know that for his shift, he earns $60. Also, we know that the total amount he earns is the sum of what he earns for one shift (60) and what he earns for overtime.

REcall that for each overtime hour he earns $15. So, what he earns in total for the overtime is 15*x. Then, the equation we get is

`y\text{ = 60+15}\cdot x`

Now, to know how much he would earn if he works 4 overtime hours, we simply replace the value of x by 4, then we get

`y\text{ = 60+15}\cdot4\text{ = 60+60 = 120}`

So Gonzalo would earn 120 if he works 4 overtime hours.