Question

Veronica wants to buy a dress for homecoming that cost $230 she has $50 saved and she makes $7.80 per hour at her job. write and solve an inequality to show how many hours she needs to work in order to afford the dress

Answer 1

To determine how many hours Veronica needs to work to afford the dress, we can set up the inequality based on her current savings, her hourly wage, and the cost of the dress.

Let \( h \) represent the number of hours Veronica needs to work.

1. **Initial Information**:
- Cost of the dress: $230
- Amount saved: $50
- Hourly wage: $7.80

2. **Inequality Formation**:
The total amount of money she will have after working \( h \) hours needs to be at least $230. This can be represented by the following inequality:

\[
50 + 7.80h \geq 230
\]

3. **Solving the Inequality**:
Subtract 50 from both sides:

\[
7.80h \geq 230 - 50
\]

Simplifying gives:

\[
7.80h \geq 180
\]

Now, divide both sides by 7.80:

\[
h \geq \frac{180}{7.80}
\]

Calculating the right side:

\[
h \geq 23.077
\]

Since \( h \) must be a whole number (you can't work a fraction of an hour in this context), we round up to the nearest whole number:

\[
h \geq 24
\]

Thus, Veronica needs to work a minimum of **24 hours** to afford the dress.