A promotional deal for long distance phone service charges a $15 basic fee plus $0.05 per minute for all calls. If Joe’s phone bill was $55, how many minutes of phone calls did he make?

Question

A promotional deal for long distance phone service charges a $15 basic fee plus $0.05 per minute for all calls. If Joe’s phone bill was $55, how many minutes of phone calls did he make?

Answer 1

Hi Elijah,

Let's use the variable, x , to represent the number of minutes Joe used.

Since he paid a fee of $15 and $0.05 for each minute, we can write and solve the following equation to show this situation:

$0.05x + $15 = $ 55

Now use inverse operations to solve for x (the number of minutes he used):

0.05x + 15 - 15 = 55 - 15

0.05x = 40

0.05x / 0.05 = 40/ 0.05

x = 800 minutes

Joe used 800 minutes if he paid $55 .