Question

Terry earns $10 per hour at Big Bob's Burgers. Jill earns 20% less than Terry and Jerry earns $0.50 more per hour than Jill. Which expression represents how much Jerry earns? (h represents hours)

I don't understand how to solve it and like how to write down the equation

Answer 1

Jerry earns $8.50/h

Explanation:

Let's express each persons wage as a variable. Terry will be `T`, Jill will be `J`, and Jerry will be `R`.

"Jill earns 20% less than Terry"

Mathematically:

`J=(1-0.2)T`

`color(blue)(J=0.8T)`

"Jerry earns $0.50 more per hour than Jill"

`R=color(blue)(J)+($0.50)/h`

Since we know a solution for Jill's wage in terms of Terry's, we can substitute that in:

`R=color(blue)(0.8T)+($0.50)/h`

Now, we can solve for Jerry's hourly wage:

`R=0.8(($10)/h)+($0.50)/h`

`R=($8)/h+($0.50)/h`

`color(green)(R=($8.50)/h)`