Question

Last month , you made long-distance calls to two of your friends . One call lasted 8 minutes longer than the other. According to the phone bill, the two call lasted a total of 42 min. How long was each call?

Answer 1

we must set the total equal to the component parts in an equation.

Total = (call1) + (call2)
42min = (x) + (x+8)
where x = the shorter call. Now, let's simplify.

42 = 2x + 8
34 = 2x
17 = x

The shorter call was 17 minutes, and the longer (x + 8)=(17+8) was 25 minutes long.