Question

Gabrielle needs to rent a car while on vacation. The rental company charges $19.95, plus 15 cents for each mile driven. If Gabrielle only has $40 to spend on the car rental, what is the maximum number of miles she can drive?

Round your answer down to the nearest mile.

Answer 1

133 miles

Explanation:

The limited budget gives rise to an inequality that can be solved for the maximum number of miles.

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setup

The rental cost for m miles will be the sum of the fixed charges and the product of the mileage charge and the number of miles.

cost = 19.95 +0.15m

We want this to be no greater than 40, so we have the inequality ...

40 ≥ 19.95 +0.15m

solution

This two-step inequality can be solved in the usual way:

20.05 ≥ 0.15m . . . . . step 1, subtract 19.95 from both sides

133.667 ≥ m . . . . . . . step 2, divide by the coefficient of the variable

The maximum whole number of miles Gabrielle can drive is 133.