Ella needed to get her computer fixed. She took it to the repair store. The technician at the store worked on the computer for 3 hours and charged her $61 for parts. The total was $226. Write and solve an equation which can be used to determine xx, the cost of the labor per hour.

Answer 1

Let the cost of labor per hour be represented by x. Since the technician worked on the computer for 3 hours, the total cost for labor would be 3x.

The total cost of the repair is the sum of the cost for parts ($61) and the cost for labor (3x). This can be represented as:

61 + 3x = 226

To solve for x, we can isolate x by subtracting 61 from both sides and then dividing by 3:

3x = 226 - 61
3x = 165
x = 165 / 3
x = 55

Therefore, the cost of labor per hour is $55.