Question

Two mechanics worked on a car. The first mechanic charged $105 per hour, and the second mechanic charged $85 per hour. The mechanics worked for a combined total of 15 hours, and together they charged a total of $1475 . How long did each mechanic work?

Answer 1

Answer: x=10 and y=5

Step-by-step explanation:  Let  be the number of hours worked by the first mechanic.

Let  be the number of hours worked by the second mechanic.

They worked for a combined total of  hours. So we have the following equation.

The first mechanic charged  per hour and worked for  hours.

So, the first mechanic charged  dollars.

The second mechanic charged  per hour and worked for  hours.

So, the second mechanic charged  dollars.

Together they charged a total of . So we have the following equation.

The two equations above give us a system of linear equations.

We can solve the first equation for .

We then substitute  for  in the second equation to find .