Bill's Plumbing Service charges $75 to schedule a repair visit plus $30 per hour to make repairs. If the total bill was $177, how many hours did Bill work on the repair?

Express your answer as a decimal number.
Answer

hours

1 answer

To find out how many hours Bill worked on the repair, we can set up an equation based on the total bill.

The total bill consists of a fixed scheduling charge and a variable repair charge based on the number of hours worked.

  1. The fixed scheduling charge is $75.
  2. The variable cost is $30 per hour, multiplied by the number of hours worked, denoted as h.

The equation for the total bill can be expressed as follows:

Total Bill=Scheduling Charge+Hourly Charge

Plugging in the numbers:

177=75+30h

Next, we can solve for h. First, subtract the scheduling charge from both sides:

17775=30h 102=30h

Now, divide both sides by 30 to find h:

h=10230

Calculating that gives:

h=3.4

Thus, Bill worked for 3.4 hours on the repair.

The final answer is:

3.4 hours