Question

A long distance telephone company charges a rate of 6 cents per minute or a 50- cent minimum charge per completed call, whichever is greater. Find the costs, in cents per minute, for a 5 minute call. (ROUND TO A NEAREST TENTH OF A CENT)

Answer 1

the equation is 6t + 50 = cost
with t being time
does that help?

Answer 2

t=minutes yes

Answer 3

huh still at loss

Answer 4

80

Answer 5

hold on no the equation is wrong let me start from the top

Answer 6

If it costs 6 cents per minute, how much does a 5-minute call cost at that rate?

Answer 7

5(6*60)=cost

Answer 8

@dolloway97
If it costs 6 cents per minute, how much does a 5-minute call cost at that rate?

Answer 9

oh wow its per minute ive been reading it as per second this whole time

Answer 10

idk

Answer 11

30 is the cost

Answer 12

1 minute costs 6 cents
2 minutes cost 2 * 6 cents = 12 cents
3 minutes cost 3 * 6 cents = 18 cents
What about 5 minutes?

Answer 13

5*6=?

Answer 14

i said 30

Answer 15

Right. At the rate 6 cents per minute, a 5-minute call would cost 30 cents.
Now lets; read carefully the problem.

Answer 16

The problem states:
"A long distance telephone company charges a rate of 6 cents per minute or a 50-cent minimum charge per completed call, whichever is greater."

Answer 17

From this part:
"A long distance telephone company charges a rate of 6 cents per minute"
you'd have a 30-cent charge for a 5-minute call, but

from this part:
"... or a 50-cent minimum charge per completed call, whichever is greater."
you see that the company will never charge you less than 50 cents for any call.

Since a 5-minute call is only 30 cents, the company charges the 50-cent minimum for it.
That means a 5-minute call really costs 50 cents.

Do you understand this?

Answer 18

but its 50 cents minimum charge per completed call

Answer 19

Right. That is why even though this call should have cost 30 cents, it really costs 50 cents.
Any call that costs less than 50 cents has its price raised to 50 cents because of the 50-cent minimum charge the company has.

Answer 20

so since its 50 cents for a five minute call what was the sense in finding out 6x5=30

Answer 21

but its asking HOW MUCH DOES A 5 MIN CALL COST IN CENTS PER MINUTE

Answer 22

A great question.
We needed to see if the charge was going to be the actual cost of the call or the minimum 50-cent charge.
We needed to see whether 5 minutes at 6 cents per minute would by more or less than the 50-cent minimum.
Once we multiplied 5 * 6 and got 30 cents, now we know we use the minimum charge and not eh 30-cent charge.

Answer 23

We're getting there.
Now that we know the charge is 50 cents for a 5 minute call, we finish the problem.

Answer 24

Since the 5-minute call really cost 50 cents, now we can find the cost per minute for the 5-minute call:

\(cost ~per ~minute = \dfrac{cost ~of ~the ~call}{number ~of ~minutes}\)

\(cost ~per ~minute = \dfrac{50~cents}{5~minutes}\)

What is 50/5 = ?

Answer 25

SO A 5 MINUTE CALL COSTS 50 CENTS PER MINUTE

Answer 26

50/5=10 @mathstudent55

Answer 27

Right.
A 5-minute call costs 50 cents, and since 50 cents/5 minutes = 10, it costs 10 cents per minute.