Consider the following word problem

Question

Blake is working his way through school. He works two part-time jobs for a total of hours a week. Job A pays per hour, and Job B pays per hour. How many hours did he work at each job the week that he made .

Use the variables x and y to set up two equations to solve the given problem.

Answer 1

Blake works 2 jobs for total h hours

job A pays x per hour

B pays y per hour

if he made a total z dollars, how many hours did he work at each

$ = hours times rate of pay

z = ax + (h-a)y where a= hours worked at job A, and h-a = hours worked at job B

z= ax +hy -ay

ax -ay = z-hy

a = (z-hy)/(x-y) where h,z,x and y are all given values. plug them in to solve for a= job A hours

then h-a = job B hours