Question

Last month you made long-distance cost to two of your friends. One call lasted eight minutes longer than the other according to the phone bill. The two calls lasted a total of 42 minutes how long with each call

Answer 1

Let's denote the duration of the shorter call as \( x \) minutes. According to the problem, the longer call lasted 8 minutes longer than the shorter call, which we can express as \( x + 8 \) minutes.

Given that the total duration of the two calls is 42 minutes, we can set up the following equation:

\[
x + (x + 8) = 42
\]

Now, simplify the equation:

\[
2x + 8 = 42
\]

Next, subtract 8 from both sides:

\[
2x = 34
\]

Now, divide both sides by 2:

\[
x = 17
\]

So, the shorter call lasted 17 minutes. Now we can find out how long the longer call lasted:

\[
x + 8 = 17 + 8 = 25
\]

Therefore, the shorter call lasted **17 minutes**, and the longer call lasted **25 minutes**.