McGraw Hill Glencoe Algebra 1, 2012
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McGraw Hill Glencoe Algebra 1, 2012 View details
8. Literal Equations and Dimensional Analysis
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Exercise 34 Page 130

Practice makes perfect
a If the car is driven x miles per year and it drives m miles per gallon, then the number of gallons g has to be equal to x divided by m. g=x/m
b If we multiply the number of gallons used g by the average price p, we get the total cost c.

c=g* p However, we have previously defined the number of gallons as xm, so if we replace g with this expression we get the following equation.

c=x/m* p
c We will make use of the formulations that we came up with in the previous question. First we will calculate the yearly gas cost c for each of the cars. Then we can convert this number to a weekly cost by dividing c with the number of weeks in a year, which is 52.

Car A

Let's substitute the values for Car A into the formula.
c=x/m* p
c=15 000/15*3
c=1000*3
c=3000

The yearly cost for Car A is exactly $3000. If we divide this by 52 we get the weekly cost. 3000/52≈ $57.69

Car B

Let's subtitute the values for Car B into the formula for c.
c=x/m* p
c=15 000/35* 3
c=45 000/35
c=1285.714286...
c≈ 1285.71
The yearly cost for Car B is about $1285.71. If we divide this with 52, we get the weekly cost. 1285.71/52≈ $24.73

Comparison

Car A costs $ 57.69 per week, and Car B costs $24.73 per week. Let's calculate the difference! $57.69-$24.73=$ 32.96 This means that Car A costs $32.96 more than Car B per week.