Answer:
after 8 years
24,000 - 900x < 17,000
the variable is x, the number of years
Explanation:
One way is to just subtract 900 from 24000 until it gets to 17000.
1. 23,100
2. 22,200
3. 21,300
4. 20,400
5. 19,500
6. 18,600
7. 17,700
8. 16,800
Another way is to write an inequality.
I know you don't have to solve it, but I'm going to write it anyway.
24,000 - 900x < 17,000
24,000 is the total, or what you start with
900 is what goes down every year
x is the number of years
all of that has to be less than 17,000
To put this into words, it would be: if 24,000 minus $900 times the number of years is less than 17000, what is x?
To find the answer, first find the difference between 24000 and 17000
subtract 2400 from each so so you are left with:
-900x < -7,000
Then to find x, the number of years, divide both sides by -900:
x < 7.777...
since that is the exact answer, and we don't really need that, we can round it up to 8.
x < 8
To learn to do this might be troublesome, but its way faster in the end. I'm not the best at explaining math, but hope this helps :)