Question

With a two-year agreement, Sarah can add up to 4 lines for $9.99 each. Her first monthly bill totals 89.96. Sarah did not exceed the "anytime minutes" limit and did not engage in "text messaging". How many lines did she add to her plan? Write an equation, and then solve.​

Answer 1

The answer is 267.

Explanation:

If we wanted to represent this scenario as an equation, it would be 22.40-14+.5x (x being the amount of texts after 250). We are using PEMDAS, but because the variable is unknown, we skip multiplication and just go left to right. 22.40 - 14 = 8.40. With 8.40, we now know how much it costed AFTER 250 messages (how much she owes after $14). If we want to find how many PER 50 cents, we have to DIVIDE (reverse of multiplication). 8.4 / .5 = 16.80. Because you can't send .8 of a text message, you round to get 17. 250 + 17 = 267 (messages sent that month).

Therefore the answer is 267 (250 + 17)