The Harper family has an SUV that gets 25 miles per gallon and a sedan that gets 40 miles per gallon. They plan to go on a 150-mile car trip and know that gas costs $4.25 per gallon. The relationship between miles and gallons is proportional, as is the relationship between gas price and gallons.
How much money will they save if they take the sedan instead of the SUV? Round to the nearest cent, if needed.
$15.00
$9.56
$3.53
$2.25
To find out how much money they will save, we need to compare the cost of gas for the SUV and the sedan.
First, we need to find out how many gallons of gas each car will need to cover the 150-mile trip.
For the SUV:
Number of gallons = Number of miles / Miles per gallon = 150 / 25 = 6 gallons
For the sedan:
Number of gallons = Number of miles / Miles per gallon = 150 / 40 = 3.75 gallons
Next, we need to calculate the cost of gas for each car.
For the SUV:
Cost of gas = Number of gallons * Price per gallon = 6 * $4.25 = $25.50
For the sedan:
Cost of gas = Number of gallons * Price per gallon = 3.75 * $4.25 ≈ $15.94
Finally, we can find out how much money they will save by taking the sedan instead of the SUV.
Amount saved = Cost of gas for SUV - Cost of gas for sedan = $25.50 - $15.94 = $9.56
Therefore, they will save approximately $9.56 by taking the sedan instead of the SUV. Answer: $\boxed{9.56}$.