Question

Huong wants to buy a bicycle that costs $396. She is about to start a new job and puts 40 percent of her earnings aside to save for the bicycle. Huong wonders what her total earnings will be to save $396.

Huong wants to know: 40 percent of what number equals $396? Write an equation that translates her question into mathematical form.

Solve the equation. How much will Huong have to earn so that her savings will equal $396?

Huong will make $90 a week. If she saves 40 percent of $90 each week, how many weeks will it take for her to save $396? Write an equation that translates her question into mathematical form.

Solve the equation. How many weeks will it take Huong to save $396 by putting aside 40 percent of her weekly salary of $90?

Answer 1

To find out how much Huong needs to earn in total in order to save $396 by saving 40 percent of her earnings, we can set up the following equation:

Let \( x \) represent her total earnings. The equation can be translated to:

\[
0.40x = 396
\]

Now, let's solve for \( x \):

\[
x = \frac{396}{0.40}
\]

Calculating the right side:

\[
x = 990
\]

Huong will need to earn a total of **$990** in order to save $396 by saving 40 percent of her earnings.

Next, Huong makes $90 a week and saves 40 percent of that each week. We need to find out how many weeks it will take her to save $396. First, we need to calculate how much she saves each week.

The amount she saves per week is:

\[
0.40 \times 90 = 36
\]

Let \( w \) represent the number of weeks it will take. We can set up the equation:

\[
36w = 396
\]

To solve for \( w \):

\[
w = \frac{396}{36}
\]

Calculating the right side gives:

\[
w = 11
\]

It will take Huong **11 weeks** to save $396 by putting aside 40 percent of her weekly salary of $90.