Seawall bike rental charges $11 fixed fee plus $9 an hour to rent a bike. Steve paid $56 to rent a bike. How many hours did he pay to have the bike checked out?

1 answer

To find out how many hours Steve rented the bike, we can set up an equation based on the rental charges.

The total cost to rent the bike can be expressed as:

\[ \text{Total Cost} = \text{Fixed Fee} + (\text{Hourly Rate} \times \text{Hours}) \]

Given:

  • Fixed Fee = $11
  • Hourly Rate = $9 per hour
  • Total Cost paid by Steve = $56

We can plug in the values:

\[ 56 = 11 + (9 \times \text{Hours}) \]

Now, let's isolate the term involving hours:

  1. Subtract the fixed fee from both sides:

\[ 56 - 11 = 9 \times \text{Hours} \]

\[ 45 = 9 \times \text{Hours} \]

  1. Now, divide both sides by 9 to solve for Hours:

\[ \text{Hours} = \frac{45}{9} \]

\[ \text{Hours} = 5 \]

So, Steve rented the bike for 5 hours.