A bicycle rental company charges $11$ dollars for the first hour and $6.25$ dollars for each additional hour (solution verification)

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A bicycle rental company charges $11$ dollars for the first hour and $6.25$ dollars for each additional hour. Determine the maximum number of hours you can rent a bike if you only have $86$ dollars.


Let $h$ be the number of hours you rent a bike for. Assuming you rent the bike for at least one hour, we can model the price as a function of hours by:

$p(h)=11 + 6.25(h-1)$

Now, if you have 86 dollars, then the maxmimum number of hours for which you can rent a bike can be found by solving the inequailty:

$86 \leq 11 + 6.25(h-1)$

$75 \leq 6.25(h-1)$

$\frac{75}{6.25} \leq h-1$

$12 \leq h-1$

$13 \leq h$

Thus, with $86$ dollars, you can rent a bike for at most $13$ hours.


Method 2:

1 hour cost 11 dollars

2 hours cost $11+6.25 = 17.25$

3 hours cost $11+2(6.25) = 23.5$

Continuing this way...

13 hours cost $11+12(6.25) = 86$

14 hours cost $11+13(6.25) = 92.25$

Thus $13$ hours is the maximum amount of time that we can rent a bike for if we have $86$ dollars.