Michael has a substantial student debt, but he recently got a new job, which came with a signing bonus. He calculates that with his new job, he can put aside a fixed amount of money every month to pay off his debt. He also puts the entirety of his bonus towards paying off his debt. He constructs the expression
36,700-(5,000+500m)to represent the size of his debt after m months. Which number describes the value of his signing bonus?
The value of his signing bonus is $5,000.
This is because the expression 36,700 - (5,000 + 500m) represents the size of his debt after m months. The term (5,000 + 500m) represents the total amount of money he puts towards paying off his debt, which includes the signing bonus of $5,000 and the fixed amount of money (500m) he puts aside every month. Therefore, the value of the signing bonus is $5,000.