Question

A college student has budgeted $25 a month for phone services. If the telephone

company charges $17 a month for basic service and $0.05 a minute for each long
distance call, how many minutes can be spent on long distance calls each month?
(Define a variable, create an equation, solve using algebra, and answer in a sentence.)

Answer 1

160 minutes can be spent on long distance calls each month.

Explanation:

first we know that there is standard charge of $17 for basic service, $0.05 cost per minute with a budget of $25.

let's write that into an equation to solve for (a) which will be number of minutes.

17 + a(0.05) = 25

solving:

17 + a(0.05) = 25

carry across the 17 whilst changing the sign, or some people is also thought to minus on both sides to get rid of a certain variable.

a(0.05) = 25 - 17

a(0.05) = 8

carry across the multiplication of 0.05 which will then turn into division, or divide by 0.05 on both sides to remove it.

`a = (8)/(0.05)`

a = 160

therefore 160 minutes can be spent on long distance calls each month.

You can redefine your answer more simply to hours by dividing by 60, which gives 2 hours and 40 minutes