Question

During the spring you do yard cleanup for households and you also paint houses you earn $8 an hour cleaning up and $12 an hour painting last summer you worked a total of 400 hours and earned $3800 how many hours did you spend during your cleanup and how many hours did you spend painting

Answer 1

Answer: you spent 250 hours during your cleanup.

you spent 150 hours painting

Explanation:

Let x represent the number of hours that you spent during your cleanup.

Let y represent the number of hours that you spent painting.

you earn $8 an hour cleaning up and $12 an hour painting last summer and you earned $3800 . it means that

8x + 12y = 3800- - - - - - - - - -- 1

You worked a total of 400 hours. This means that

x + y = 400

Substituting x = 400 - y into equation 1, it becomes

8(400 - y) + 12y = 3800

3200 - 8y + 12y = 3800

- 8y + 12y = 3800 - 3200

4y = 600

y = 600/4 = 150 hours

Substituting y = 150 into x = 400 - y, it becomes

x = 400 - 150

x = 250 hours