SOLUTION: A sales person purchased an automobile that was advertised as averaging 25mi/gal in the city and 40 mi/gal on the highway. A recent sales trip that covered 1800 miles required 51 g

Question 275393: A sales person purchased an automobile that was advertised as averaging 25mi/gal in the city and 40 mi/gal on the highway. A recent sales trip that covered 1800 miles required 51 gallons of gasoline. Assuming that the advertised mileage estimates were correct, how many miles were driven in the city?
I'm really stumped on how to approach this problems because it seems the answer could possibly have more than one correct answer if there is not a number of highway miles given, or the answer would have a variable in it.
Answer by stanbon(75887) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
A sales person purchased an automobile that was advertised as averaging 25mi/gal in the city and 40 mi/gal on the highway.
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A recent sales trip that covered 1800 miles required 51 gallons of gasoline.
Assuming that the advertised mileage estimates were correct, how many miles were driven in the city?
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Let x be the city miles.
Then 1800-x are the highway miles.
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distance/miles per gallon = gallons
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Equation:
gallons + gallons = 51 gallons
x/25 + (1800-x)/40 = 51 gallons
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Multiply thru by 25*40 to get:
40x + 25*1800 - 25x = 51*25*40
15x = 6000
x = 400 (miles of city driving)
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Cheers,
Stan H.

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