Question

To paint a house, a painting company charges

a flat rate of $500 for
supplies, plus $50 for each hour of labor.
a.
How much would the painting company charge to paint
a house that
needs 20 hours of labor? A house that needs 50 hours?

Answer 1

Call the number of hours of labor x.

A flat rate of $500 -> just $500.
$50 for each hour of labor -> 50x (for x hours)

Therefore, we can represent the amount needed for x hours of labor as the function : 500 + 50x.

We substitute :
20 hours of labor = 500 + 50 x 20 = $1500
50 hours of labor = 500 + 50 x 50 = $3000