Nathan has a $75

budget to rent a car for a day. The daily rental charge is $29.50
and then he will also have to pay $0.55
per mile. How many miles can he drive the car without exceeding his budget? (All partial miles are counted as full miles.)

1 answer

To determine how many miles Nathan can drive without exceeding his budget, we start by calculating the total cost of renting the car including the mileage fee.

  1. Daily rental charge is $29.50.

  2. Total budget: $75.

  3. Remaining budget for mileage: \[ \text{Remaining budget} = \text{Total budget} - \text{Daily rental charge} \] \[ \text{Remaining budget} = 75 - 29.50 = 45.50 \]

  4. Cost per mile is $0.55. Now, we need to determine how many miles Nathan can drive with the remaining budget of $45.50. To find the maximum number of miles (\(x\)), we can set up the equation: \[ 0.55x = 45.50 \]

  5. Solving for \(x\): \[ x = \frac{45.50}{0.55} \] \[ x = 82.7272... \]

  6. Since Nathan can't drive a fractional mile, we round up to the next whole number because any partial mile would still incur a full charge. Therefore, he can drive: \[ x = 83 \text{ miles.} \]

Thus, Nathan can drive a maximum of 83 miles without exceeding his budget.