neeg wrote:At a regular hourly rate, Don had estimated that labor cost of a repair job as $336 and he was paid that amount. However, the job took 4hrs longer that he had estimated and, consequently, he earned $2 per hour less than his regular hourly rate, What was the time Don had estimated for the job, in hours?
(a)28
(b)24
(c)16
(d)14
(e)12
Algebraic Approach:
Let us assume that the regular hourly rate = R, and the estimated time = T
Then RT = 336 ... Equation (1)
Also, (R - 2)(T + 4) = 336 ... Equation (2)
From Equations (1) and (2), RT = (R - 2)(T + 4)
Solving we get, RT = RT - 2T + 4R - 8
T = 2R - 4
Now we can plug in answer choices for T and get the value of R. The option which gives the product of RT as 336 will be the correct answer.
It can be seen that answer choice B is the correct one, since T = 24, R = 14 implies RT = 14 * 24 = 336
The correct answer is B.
