The cost of renting a bus to go snowboarding was split evenly by the 20 students planning to go. The day before the trip, 10 more students decided to go. Dividing the cost evenly among all 30 students brought the average cost down by $9.00 per person. What was the total cost of renting the bus?

Answer 1

30 * 9 = ?

Answer 2

There has to be an initial step because first there was 20 students

Answer 3

Oops! Sorry -- I didn't read the word "by."

Please repost your question so a real math tutor can respond.

Answer 4

So what is the first step in figuring it out????

Answer 5

The first step in solving a word problem is always to organize the information you have, and put it into equations to solve.

Let c be the cost per student originally.

The cost of the bus has not changed, so the cost/student * the number of students has not changed:

20c = 30(c-9)