Jenna wants to have a magician for her birthday party. She has $159 to spend to have a magician come there is an initial fee of $29 plus $26 per hour. How many hours can Jenna have the magicians stay?

Answer 1

To determine how many hours Jenna can hire the magician, we first need to set up an equation based on the total cost she can afford.

Let \( h \) represent the number of hours the magician stays. The total cost \( C \) is given by the initial fee plus the hourly rate:

\[ C = 29 + 26h \]

Jenna has a budget of $159, so we set up the inequality:

\[ 29 + 26h \leq 159 \]

Now, we will solve for \( h \):

1. Subtract 29 from both sides:

\[ 26h \leq 159 - 29 \]

\[ 26h \leq 130 \]

2. Now, divide both sides by 26:

\[ h \leq \frac{130}{26} \]

Calculating the division:

\[ h \leq 5 \]

Thus, Jenna can hire the magician for a maximum of 5 hours.