Question

Zach mows lawns. He charges $5 plus $3 per hour. Alex also mows lawns He charges $2 plus $4 per hour. How many hours do they need to work to make the same amount

Answer 1

They both need to work 3 hours to get the same amount of $14.

Explanation:

If you have a graphing calculator handy, just graph the two expressions 3x + 5 and 4x + 2 and look for the point where they intersect. If you don't have a graphing calculator set up the equation 3x + 5 = 4x + 2. Subtract 4x from both sides to get -x + 5 = 2. Then subtract 5 from both sides to get -x = -3. Since x shouldn't be negative, divide both sides by -1. You do this because just like x is 1x, -x is -1x. After dividing, you should get x = 3.