SOLUTION: I need help solving this problem, An employment agency pays heavy equipment operators $136.00 a day and general laborers $81 a day. If thirty people were hired and the payroll w

Algebra ->  Customizable Word Problem Solvers  -> Numbers -> SOLUTION: I need help solving this problem, An employment agency pays heavy equipment operators $136.00 a day and general laborers $81 a day. If thirty people were hired and the payroll w      Log On

Ad: Over 600 Algebra Word Problems at edhelper.com


    

Question 142630This question is from textbook
: I need help solving this problem,
An employment agency pays heavy equipment operators $136.00 a day and general laborers $81 a day. If thirty people were hired and the payroll was $3391, how many heavy equipment operators were employed? How many laborers?
Thanks in advance for your help This question is from textbook

Found 2 solutions by scott8148, solver91311:
Answer by scott8148(6628) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
let x=operators and y=laborers

"thirty people were hired" __ x+y=30 __ y=30-x

"the payroll was $3391" __ 136x+81y=3391

substituting __ 136x+81(30-x)=3391 __ distributing __136x+2430-81x=3391

subtracting 2430 __ 55x=961

x is NOT an integer value

since a partial person is not realistic, you might want to check the numbers in the problem

Answer by solver91311(24713) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
I'm presuming that the daily payroll is $3391.

Let h be the number of heavy equipment operators and g be the number of general laborers. We are given that h%2Bg=30

Since heavy equipment operators earn $136 per day, the amount of heavy equipment operator payroll is 136h per day. Likewise, the amount of general laborer payroll is 81g. Since the total payroll is 3391, we can say 136h%2B81g=3391

Another way to express the first equation is h=30-g. Now we can combine the two equations by substitution, that is, substitute 30-g for h in the second equation, thus:

136%2830-g%29%2B81g=3391

Solve this equation for g to get the number of general laborers, then subtract that from 30 to get the number of heavy equipment operators.

The problem you will face once you get the answer is that there is no integer solution to this problem. The employment agency is going to have a difficult time hiring fractional people. On the other hand, if you made a typo in the problem statement and actually meant that the general laborers were paid $83 per day, then it works out. (you will need to solve: 136%2830-g%29%2B83g=3391)