A jet ski company charges a flat fee of $24.00 plus $2.25 per hour to rent a jet ski. Another company charges a fee of $23.00 plus $2.50 per hour to rent the same jet ski. Using a graphing calculator, find the number of hours for which the costs are the same. Round your answer to the nearest whole hour.
Let $x$ be the number of hours. Then the cost of the first company is $2.25x+24$ and the cost of the second company is $2.5x+23$. We need to find the value of $x$ for which these two expressions are equal: $$2.25x+24=2.5x+23.$$Subtracting $2.25x$ and $23$ from both sides gives $1=x$. Since our answer must be rounded to the nearest whole hour, the answer is $\boxed{1}$.
