A toaster oven costing $130 offers an extended warranty for 25% of the purchase price. If the local repair shop will fix a toaster oven for $8, how many times must the toaster oven break in order for the warranty to pay for itself?

a.
five
b.
six
c.
four
d.
one


Please select the best answer from the choices provided

A
B
C
D

1 answer

To determine how many times the toaster oven must break for the warranty to pay for itself, we first need to calculate the cost of the warranty.

The warranty costs 25% of the toaster oven price:

  • Cost of the toaster oven = $130
  • Warranty cost = 25% of $130 = 0.25 × $130 = $32.50

Next, we'll compare the warranty cost to the repair cost:

  • Repair cost per break = $8

Now, we'll set up the equation to find out how many times (let's denote this as \( n \)) the toaster oven needs to break for the warranty to be worthwhile:

\[ n \times \text{Repair cost} = \text{Warranty cost} \]

Substituting the values into the equation gives us:

\[ n \times 8 = 32.50 \]

Now, solving for \( n \):

\[ n = \frac{32.50}{8} = 4.0625 \]

Since \( n \) must be a whole number, we round up to the nearest whole number, which is 5.

Thus, the toaster oven must break 5 times for the warranty to pay for itself.

The best answer from the choices provided is:

A: five