One evening Carly earned a total of $61 as a waitress at the local chili parlor. She earns $5 an hour and received $36 in tips. How many hours did she spent waitressing that evening?

1 Answer
May 20, 2018

#h = 5#
She served for 5 hours.

Explanation:

First, let's set up an equation to represent this data by using the #y = mx + b# format:

#61 = 5h + 36# , where 61 is the total amount she earned, 5h is her hourly pay, and 36 is the additional money she earned from tips.

Because this is a two-step equation, we'll remove any additional terms first before isolating for #h#. So, let's cancel out 36 by subtracting 36 from both sides. This should leave you with:

#25 = 5h#

To solve for #h#, divide both sides by 5.

#5 = h#

Therefore, #h = 5#, so she was served for 5 hours.