Question

Mr. Malone is contemplating which chauffeured car service to take to the airport. The first costs $28 upfront and $2 per mile. The second costs $13 plus $5 per mile. For a certain driving distance, the two companies charge the same total fare. What is the distance?

Answer 1

The distance is 8 miles.

Explanation:

First, we need to write an equation for each of chauffeured car services.

The first one = 28 + 2x = ?

The second one = 13 + 5x = ?

Next, we need to figure out what x is. Usually I just plug in random numbers, but I'm sure there's a better way to do it.

I first plugged in 2 as x.

28 + 4 = 32

13 + 10 = 23

That didn't work, so I then plugged in 5.

28 + 10 = 38

13 + 25 = 38

So 5 would be the correct answer for what is the distance.