Two phone companies offer discount rates to students.

The first company wants $9.95 per month plus $.10 per minute for long distance calls.
The second company wants $12.95 per month plus $.08 per minute for long distance calls.

Write a linear equation describing the total cost, y, for x minutes of long distance calls from Company 1.

Write a linear equation describing the total cost, y, for x minutes of long distance calls from Company 2.

How many minutes of long-distance calls would it take for the cost of long-distance for both offers to be the same?

Which method did you use to solve this problem?

Company 1 = 9.95+0.10x = y

Company 2 = 12.95+0.08x = y

Not sure of the second question

You make both equations equal for themselves, then solve for x.

i.e
9.95+0.10x=12.95+0.08x

happy birthday

To write the linear equation for the total cost from Company 1, we can use the formula: y = 0.10x + 9.95. Here, x represents the number of minutes of long-distance calls and y represents the total cost in dollars.

Similarly, to write the linear equation for the total cost from Company 2, we can use the formula: y = 0.08x + 12.95. Here, x again represents the number of minutes of long-distance calls and y represents the total cost in dollars.

To find the number of minutes of long-distance calls where the cost is the same for both offers, we need to set the two equations equal to each other and solve for x:

0.10x + 9.95 = 0.08x + 12.95

First, subtracting 0.08x from both sides gives:

0.02x + 9.95 = 12.95

Next, subtracting 9.95 from both sides gives:

0.02x = 3

Dividing both sides by 0.02 gives:

x = 150

Hence, it would take 150 minutes of long-distance calls for the cost of long-distance for both offers to be the same.

To solve this problem, I used algebraic equations and solved for x by isolating the variable and performing the necessary operations.