Ella needed to get her computer fixed. She took it to the repair store. The technician at the store worked on the computer for 3 hours and charged her $61 for parts. The total was $226. Write and solve an equation which can be used to determine xx, the cost of the labor per hour.
Let the cost of labor per hour be represented by x. Since the technician worked on the computer for 3 hours, the total cost for labor would be 3x.
The total cost of the repair is the sum of the cost for parts ($61) and the cost for labor (3x). This can be represented as:
61 + 3x = 226
To solve for x, we can isolate x by subtracting 61 from both sides and then dividing by 3:
3x = 226 - 61
3x = 165
x = 165 / 3
x = 55
Therefore, the cost of labor per hour is $55.