Question

A shopper’s discount club charges a monthly fee of $15 and sells gasoline for $2.05 per gallon. The gas station across the street sells gasoline for $2.35 per gallon and charges no fee. Write and equation to model how many gallons of gasoline would you have to buy in one month to spend the same amount at either store

Answer 1

15 + 2.05 x = 2.35 x

Explanation:

Let x be the number of gallons you would have to buy for the two places to be the same.

At the club, there is a monthly fee of $15 that is charged once in a month. They also charge $2.05 per gallon, which is charged every gallon of gas you buy.

We can write an expression: 15 + 2.05 x

At the gas station, they charge $2.35 per gallon with no other fees.

We can also write an expression: 2.35 x

For the prices to be the same, we have 15 + 2.05 x = 2.35 x

If we were to solve, then we have:

(2.35 - 2.05) x = 15

x = 15 / 0.3 = 50 gallons