Dan's long-distance phone carrier charges him $3.95 a month for service. In addition, Dan is charged 5 cents a minute for the calls he makes. If his monthly bill is $48.50, how many minutes of calls did he make?

1 Answer
Nov 11, 2016

Dan made 891 minutes of calls.

Explanation:

The formula for the cost of Dan's phone can be written as:

#c = $3.95 + ($0.05 xx m)# where #c# is the total cost and #m# is the minutes of calls he made.

Because we know #c# we can update this equation to:

#$48.50 = $3.95 + ($0.05 xx m)#

Solving for #m# while keeping the equation balanced gives:

#$48.50 - $3.95 = $0.05 xx m#

#$44.55 = $0.05 xx m#

#($44.55)/($0.05) = ($0.05 xx m)/($0.05)#

#m = 891#