Question

17.
Crystal earns $5.25 per hour mowing lawns. Write a rule to describe how the amount of money m earned is a function of the number of hours h spent mowing lawns. How much does Crystal earn if she works 2 hours and 15 minutes?

Answer 1

To create a function that describes how much money Crystal earns based on the hours she works, we can define it as follows:

Let \( m \) represent the money earned, and \( h \) represent the number of hours worked. The rule can be expressed as:

\[
m = 5.25h
\]

Now, to determine how much Crystal earns if she works 2 hours and 15 minutes, we first need to convert the 15 minutes into hours.

15 minutes is equal to:

\[
\frac{15}{60} = 0.25 \text{ hours}
\]

So, 2 hours and 15 minutes is:

\[
h = 2 + 0.25 = 2.25 \text{ hours}
\]

Now, we can substitute \( h = 2.25 \) into the earnings equation:

\[
m = 5.25 \times 2.25
\]

Calculating this:

\[
m = 5.25 \times 2.25 = 11.8125
\]

Thus, Crystal earns **$11.81** when rounded to the nearest cent after working 2 hours and 15 minutes.