Thread: Solving this word problem

The answer to this problem is 2 hours and 30 minutes, I'm just not sure how one would go about solving it.

On Conner's cellphone it costs 6 cents/min for a phone call, and 3 cents/min to play a game. Conner can spend 18$ on the phone bill.

A: Make an equation in standard form for the number of minutes that Connor can talk on the phone, t, and play games, g.

B: How long can Connor talk on the phone, in hours, if he plays video games for 5 hours?

Originally Posted by cherrybaby

The answer to this problem is 2 hours and 30 minutes, I'm just not sure how one would go about solving it.

On Conner's cellphone it costs 6 cents/min for a phone call, and 3 cents/min to play a game. Conner can spend 18$ on the phone bill.

A: Make an equation in standard form for the number of minutes that Connor can talk on the phone, t, and play games, g.

B: How long can Connor talk on the phone, in hours, if he plays video games for 5 hours?

[A].

If Conner used t minutes on talking on the phone, then at 6 cents/min, he spent t*6 = 6t cents.

If he used g minutes on playing games on the phone, at 3 cents/min, he spent g*3 = 3g cents.

He has $18 or 1800 cents to spend, so
6t +3g = 1800 ---------------------------(1)

-------------------------
[B].

If he plays for 5 hrs,
5hrs *60min/hr = 5*60 = 300 minutes,
then g = 300 min.
Substitute that into (1),
6t +3(300) = 1800
6t = 1800 -900
6t = 900
t = 900/6 = 150 min

150min *1hr/60min = 150/60 = 2.5 hrs or 2hrs and 30min.

Therefore, Conner can talk for 2 hours and 30 minutes with the $18 he has.