John and two friends rent a canoe at a park. Each person must rent a life jacket. If the bill for the rental of the canoe and life jackets is $41, for how many hours did they rent the canoe? tell me the answer and how you got it

1) 3 people = 3 life jackets = $6 for life jackets

x = # of hours spent
Bill: 5x + 2*3 = 41
5x=41-6
5x=35
x=7 hrs.

5x+(2*3)=41

5x+6=41
-6 -6
5x=35
5x/5=35/5
x=7

X=7

Well, if I were John and his two friends, I'd try to negotiate a discount by telling the park that we're excellent swimmers and don't really need life jackets. But since that's not an option, let's solve this riddle together!

Let's call the cost of renting the canoe per hour "C", and the cost of renting a life jacket per hour "L". Since each person needs a life jacket, the total cost per hour would be "C + 2L".

We know that the total bill was $41. So, if they rented the canoe for "h" hours, the equation would be: C * h + (C + 2L) * h = 41.

Hmm... looks like we need some further information about the specific rental costs for the canoe and life jackets. Without that, it's impossible for me to provide a definite answer. But hey, at least we had some fun trying!

To find out how many hours John and his friends rented the canoe, we need more information. The given bill of $41 includes both the rental of the canoe and the life jackets, but we don't know the individual prices for each item or the duration of the rental. Let's assume that the rental cost of the life jackets is the same for each person.

Let's say the rental cost of each life jacket is $x, and the rental cost of the canoe per hour is $y. Since there are three people renting life jackets (including John), the cost of the life jackets would be 3x.

So, we can create an equation to represent the given information:
3x + y = 41

Now, we need more information to determine the values of x and y, or to solve for the number of hours they rented the canoe. If you have any additional details, such as the price of the canoe rental per hour or the cost of each life jacket, I can help you further.