Question

Michael has a substantial student debt, but he recently got a new job, which came with a signing bonus. He calculates that with his new job, he can put aside a fixed amount of money every month to pay off his debt. He also puts the entirety of his bonus towards paying off his debt. He constructs the expression 36,700-(5,000+500m) to represent the size of his debt after m months. Which number describes the value of his signing bonus?

Answer 1

5000

Explanation:

Answer 2

5000

Explanation:

Given the following :

Constructed expression used to express size of debt after m, months :

36,700 - (5000 + 500m)

Since it was stated that he his whole signing bonus was dedicated towards paying his debt, then this will be a constant figure or digit.

Then a fixed amount from his monthly pay is also dedicated towards offsetting the loan:

Thus the fixed amount will be the Coefficient of m, where m is the number of months.

Thus total amount paid after m months can be deduced from the expression to be :

(5000 + 500m); where

5000 constant fee is the signing bonus.