Mary has already spent 1 minute on the phone, and she expects to spend 4 more minutes with every phone call she routes. In all, how many phone calls does Mary have to route to spend a total of 5 minutes on the phone? Write and solve an equation to find the answer.
To solve this problem, we can set up an equation.
Let's say 'x' represents the number of phone calls.
Since Mary spent 1 minute on the phone already and expects to spend 4 more minutes with each phone call, the total time she will spend on the phone is 1 + 4x minutes.
According to the question, Mary wants to spend a total of 5 minutes on the phone, so we can set up the equation:
1 + 4x = 5
To isolate 'x', we can subtract 1 from both sides of the equation:
4x = 5 - 1
This simplifies to:
4x = 4
Lastly, we can divide both sides of the equation by 4:
x = 4/4
Therefore, the value of 'x' is 1, which means Mary has to route 1 phone call to spend a total of 5 minutes on the phone.