Question

Connor went to New York for vacation. He spent 3 nights at a hotel and rented a car for 4 days. Jillian stayed at the same hotel, but spent 4 nights and rented a car for 5 days from the same company. If Connor paid $675 and Jillian paid $875, how much did one night at the hotel cost?

Answer 1

You have 2 equations:
Connor: 3x+4y=675
Jillian: 4x+5y=875

Can you rearrange one of the formulas so that you're just left with a variable (eg x= or y=)?

Answer 2

???

Answer 3

Do the equations make sense?

Answer 4

no :/ im not good in math

Answer 5

yh it does and i think its right....

Answer 6

That's okay!
So the whole cost of Connor's trip is going to be $675, and the total amount he pays is made up of the separate amounts he pays at each place.

So we could look at his trip like this:
3 nights at the hotel X the amount he payed each night at the hotel
+
4 days using a rented car X the amount he payed each day to rent the car
=
Total amount he payed.

Does this make sense so far?

Answer 7

not really..

Answer 8

Okay! So let's just look at the time connor spends at the hotel. How many days does he spend there?

Answer 9

3

Answer 10

And he's going to pay a certain amount each day to stay at that hotel.

Answer 11

So let's say that the amount he pays each day to stay at the hotel is X dollars.

Answer 12

alright

Answer 13

So if he spends 3 days at a rate of X dollars per day, we can say that the amount he payed at the hotel was 3X dollars. Does that make sense?

Answer 14

yes

Answer 15

And if he rented a car for 4 days at a rate of y dollars per day, we can say he spent 4y dollars on the car.

Answer 16

Now, the total amount he payed on the trip is the amount he spent at the hotel plus the amount he spent on the car.

If he spent 3x dollars at the hotel and 4y dollars on the car, we can say that

3x + 4y

is the total amount he spent, which was $675.

So the equation for connor's spendings is

3x + 4y = 675

Answer 17

i think i know it now.. is it $125

Answer 18

?

Answer 19

Yep!

Answer 20

Do you understand it a little better now?

Answer 21

thanks for the help :)

Answer 22

No prob :)

Answer 23

i have a few more questions

Answer 24

Sure, what are they?