Mark the number of hours with snowfall as x. Describe the snowfalls in both towns in terms of x to make an equation.
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Practice makes perfect
We are told that two towns have accumulated different amounts of snow. In Town 1 there is already 5 inches of snow and its depth is increasing by 3 12 inches every hour. In Town 2 there is 6 inches and the depth is increasing by 2 14 inches every hour. We want to find the number of hours after which the snowfalls in two towns will be equal. Let's start with defining x.
x - the number of hours with snowfall
Let's now express the snowfalls of both towns in terms of x. In Town 1 there is 3 12 inches of snow every hour plus 5 inches. Therefore, the snowfall will be the number of hours x multiplied by 3 12 plus 5. In Town 2 there is 2 14 inch of snow every hour plus 6 inches, so the snowfall will be the number of hours x multiplied by 2 14 plus 6.
Snowfall in Town A:& 3 12x+ 5
Snowfall in Town B:& 2 14x+ 6
We want the snowfalls to be equal, so we need to make an equation that will have the snowfall of Town 1 on the left-hand side and the snowfall of Town 2 on the right-hand side.
3 12x+ 5 = 2 14x+ 6
Now we will solve the obtained equation. We will use the inverse operations to combine like terms on both sides of the equals sign and solve for x.
