Chandler and his friend Alec recently bought new cell phones. Alec's phone was 20% more expensive than Chandler's. Chandler also spent $37 on an extended warranty and $55 on a new phone case. Both friends ended up spending the same amount of money.

Which equation can you use to find p, the price of Chandler's phone?
What was the price of Chandler's phone?
$

1 answer

Let \( p \) be the price of Chandler's phone. Since Alec's phone was 20% more expensive than Chandler's, the price of Alec's phone can be expressed as:

\[ p + 0.2p = 1.2p \]

Chandler's total expense is the price of his phone plus the cost of the warranty and the phone case:

\[ p + 37 + 55 = p + 92 \]

Alec's total expense is the price of his phone along with the same warranty and phone case costs:

\[ 1.2p + 37 + 55 = 1.2p + 92 \]

Since both friends spent the same amount of money, we can set up the equation:

\[ p + 92 = 1.2p + 92 \]

To solve for \( p \), we can simplify the equation by subtracting \( 92 \) from both sides:

\[ p = 1.2p \]

If we simplify this, we get:

\[ 0 = 0.2p \]

From this, we see that we can derive:

\[ 0.2p = 0 \]

Correcting this, we need to set the equations correctly for comparison. The better equation to start with is:

\[ p + 92 = 1.2p + 92 \]

Subtract \( 92 \) from both sides:

\[ p = 1.2p \]

Now subtract \( p \) from both sides:

\[ 0 = 0.2p \]

We can cancel that out and shift the equation:

\[ 92 = 0.2p \]

Now solve for \( p \):

\[ p = \frac{92}{0.2} = 460 \]

So the price of Chandler's phone is:

\[ \boxed{460} \]

Therefore, the price of Chandler's phone is $460.