Question

Benecio worked 40 hours at his two jobs last week. He earned $20 per hour at his weekday job and $18 per hour at his weekend job. He earned $770 in all. How many hours did he work at each job?

Answer 1

Set up the following equations:


`x + y = 40`

`20x + 18y = 770`

x is the amount of hours worked on the weekday job, and y is the amount of hours worked on the weekend job.

We'll use substitution to remove one of the variables.

Multiply the first equation by -18 to get opposite coefficients for y:


`-18x - 18y = -720`

`20x + 18y = 770`

Combine these two equations together:


`2x = 50`

Divide both sides by 2 to get x by itself:


`x = 25`

Plug in x to the first original equation:


`25 + y = 40`

Subtract 25 from both sides to get y by itself:


`y = 15`

He worked 25 hours at his weekday job, and 15 hours at his weekend job.