The team needs to park the Mystery Machine. They could either park in the lot that charges $5 and then $2 an hour, or they could park using the meter on the street that charges $3.75 per hour.
Write and solve an equation that describes when the cost is the same at both locations (the parking lot and on the street).
To find the equation that describes when the cost is the same at both locations, let's assume the team wants to park for x hours.
For the parking lot, the cost would be $5 for parking and $2 per hour. So the total cost would be:
Cost = $5 + $2(x)
For the street parking meter, the cost is $3.75 per hour. So the total cost would be:
Cost = $3.75(x)
To find when the costs are equal, we can set the two equations equal to each other and solve for x:
$5 + $2(x) = $3.75(x)
Now let's solve for x:
$5 + $2x = $3.75x
$5 = $3.75x - $2x
$5 = $1.75x
Dividing both sides by $1.75, we get:
x = $5 / $1.75
Simplifying the division, we get:
x = 2.8571 (rounded to four decimal places)
Therefore, when the team parks for approximately 2.8571 hours (or about 2 hours and 51 minutes), the cost of parking will be the same at both the parking lot and the street.