Question

your parents offer to loan you the money to buy a $600 sound system. you give them $125 as a down payment and agree to make monthly payments of $25 until you have repaid the loan. write and solve an equation to find the number of payments you have to make in order to pay off your loan.

Explanation:

Step1: Define variable and equation

Let \( x \) be the number of monthly payments. The total amount paid is the down payment plus the total monthly payments, which should equal the cost of the sound system. So the equation is \( 125 + 25x = 600 \).

Step2: Solve for \( x \)

Subtract 125 from both sides: \( 25x = 600 - 125 \)
\( 25x = 475 \)
Divide both sides by 25: \( x = \frac{475}{25} \)
\( x = 19 \)

Answer:

The number of payments is 19. The equation is \( 125 + 25x = 600 \) and its solution is \( x = 19 \).