Question

Trevor is looking at purchasing a new cellular phone plan. Company A charges $35.25 a month, plus $.11/min for local calls. Company B charges $14.25 a month, plus $.32/min for local calls. Trevor stated that if he used x amount of minutes, the cost of the phone companies would be the same. For what amount of minutes, x, would Trevor's argument be true? Trevor is planning to use at least a 100 minutes for local a month. Which company would be cheaper for Trevor to use?

Answer 1

Answer: Trevor's argument will be true if he used 100 minutes.

Let x represent the amount of minutes that Trevor would use for the cost of the phone companies to be the same.

Company A charges $35.25 a month, plus $.11/min for local calls. This means that the total cost of making x minutes of call with Company A's plan is

32.25 + 0.11x

Company B charges $14.25 a month, plus $.32/min for local calls. This means that the total cost of making x minutes of call with Company B's plan is

14.25 + 0.32x

For both costs to be the same, the number of minutes would be

35.25 + 0.11x = 14.25 + 0.32x

0.32x - 0.11x = 35.25 - 14.25

0.21x = 21

x = 21/0.21 = 100

Explanation: