A contractor is adding a back porch on to a house. The porch needs to hold 20 people and furniture that weighs 250 lb. The contractor calculates that the porch needs to hold 3750 lb to meet that specification. What value did the contractor use for the weight of a person?(3 points)

Question

Responses

175

150

250

200

Answer 1

To find the value the contractor used for the weight of a person, we can set up an equation based on the total weight capacity required for the porch.

Let \( x \) be the weight of one person. The porch needs to hold 20 people plus the weight of the furniture.

The equation for the total weight support is: \[ 20x + 250 = 3750 \]

Now, we solve for \( x \):

1. Subtract the weight of the furniture from the total weight: \[ 20x = 3750 - 250 \] \[ 20x = 3500 \]

2. Divide both sides by 20 to find \( x \): \[ x = \frac{3500}{20} \] \[ x = 175 \]

Therefore, the contractor used a weight of 175 lb for each person.