Question

You earn $8 an hour doing cleanups and $12 an hour painting. Last spring and summer, you worked a total of 400 hours and earned $3,800. How many hours did you spend doing cleanups? How many hours did you spend painting?

Answer 1

• 250 hours doing cleanups
• 150 hours painting

Explanation:

Let p represent the number of hours spent painting. Then the hours spent doing cleanups can be represented by 400-p, and total earnings are ...

12p +8(400 -p) = 3800

4p +3200 = 3800 . . . . . . simplify

4p = 600 . . . . . . . . . . subtract 3200; next, divide by 4

p = 150 . . . . . . . . . . . hours spent painting

(400-p) = 250 . . . . . hours doing cleanups