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.