Question

Aldo takes classes at both Westside Community College and Pinewood Community College. At Westside, class fees are $98 per credit hour, and at Pinewood, class fees are $115 per credit hour. Aldo is taking a combined total of 14 credit hours at the two schools. Suppose that he is taking w credit hours at Westside. Write an expression for the combined total dollar amount he paid for his class fees.

Answer 1

Let Y = total cost of both schools.

The total cost would be ( number of credits at Westside x 98) + (number of credits at Pinewood x 115).

The total number of credits he is taking is 14.

If w is the number of credits at Westside, then for Westside you have 98w ( $98 times the number of credit hours)

The equation is now y = 98w +  (number of credits at Pinewood x 115).

The number of credit hours at Pinewood would be the total credit  hours 14 minus the credit hours at Westside w, so you have 14-w, which needs to be multiplied by the cost at Pinewood.

The equation is now y = 98w + 115(14-w)

This can be simplified using the distributive property to:

Y = 98w + 1610 - 115w

Y = -17w + 1610