James recently hired a mechanic to do some necessary work On

James recently hired a mechanic to do some necessary work. On the final bill, James was charged a total of $864. $240 was listed for parts and the rest for labor. If the hourly rate for labor was $52, how many hours of labor was needed to complete the job?

(A) First write an equation you can use to answer this question. Use x as your variable and express any percents in decimal form in the equation.
(A) The equation is_______

(B) Solve your equation in part (A) to find the number of labor hours needed to do the job.
(B) The number of labor hours was________

Solution

let x hours of labour was needed to complete the job

labour cost plus parts is equal to $ 864

so equation becomes

a) 52x + 240 = 864

b) solving for x

subtract 240 from both sides

52x = 864 - 240

52x = 624

dividing both sides by 52 to isolate x

x = 624/52 = 12

c) therefore, number of labour hours was 12