Question

A new hybrid car has a 18-gallon gas tank. On one tank of gas, the owner can drive 540 miles. The number of miles traveled varies directly with the number of gallons of gas the car uses.
a. Write an equation that relates the number of miles traveled with the number of gallons of gas used.

b. How many miles can the owner travel on 12 gallons of gas?

Answer 1

To find the amount of miles/gallon, we have 540 miles/18 gallons=30 miles/gallon. As we add 30 miles for every gallon, the amount of miles traveled is 30*x (e.g. if x is 1 then 0+30=30 and if x is 2 then 30+30 (2 times)=60) with x being the amount of gallons. For b, we just plug 12 in for x to get 20*12=360