Samantha is saving up to buy a new bicycle for 250. She already has 50 saved. Samantha plans to save x per week from her allowance. How many weeks (in terms of x) will it take Samantha to save enough money to buy the bicycle?
Answer: It will take Samantha weeks to save enough money to buy the bicycle.
Step-by-step solution
Step 1: Find the remaining amount to be saved
The total cost of the bicycle is dollars, and Samantha already has dollars saved. Subtracting the initial savings from the total cost gives the remaining amount she needs to save, which is dollars.
Step 2: Set up an equation for the total savings after w weeks
Let denote the number of weeks required. Since Samantha saves dollars each week, the total money saved in weeks is dollars. Adding this to her initial dollars gives the required cost of dollars.
Step 3: Solve for the number of weeks w in terms of x
Subtracting from both sides gives . Dividing both sides by isolates the variable , giving the total number of weeks in terms of .