document.write( "Question 176375: The members of a flying club plan to share equally the cost of a $200,000 airplane. The members want to find five more people to join the club so that the cost per person will decrease by $2,000. How many members are currently in the club? \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #131467 by EMStelley(208)\"\" \"About 
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Call the number of people currently in the club x. Then if they share the cost equally, they will each pay $200,000/x. Now, if they find 5 more people the cost will decrease by 2,000 per person. So if x is increased by 5, (x+5), the cost, $200,000/(x+5) will be 2,000 less per person, a.k.a. $200,000/x - 2000. So we need to set those two equal to each other and solve for x.
\n" ); document.write( "\"200000%2F%28x%2B5%29=200000%2Fx-2000\"
\n" ); document.write( "Now, if you are anything like most people, than I would assume you don't like working with fractions. So how about we try to get rid of them? If we multiplied both sides by x would that work? No, it would not get rid of the fraction on the left hand side. If we multiplied both sides by x+5 would that work? No again, as it would not correct the fraction on the right hand side. It seems that we need both. So let's multiply by x(x+5) on both sides:
\n" ); document.write( "\"200000x=200000%28x%2B5%29-2000x%28x%2B5%29\"
\n" ); document.write( "\"200000x=200000x%2B1000000-2000x%5E2-10000x\"
\n" ); document.write( "Now, subtract 200000x from both sides to obtain:
\n" ); document.write( "\"0=1000000-2000x%5E2-10000x\"
\n" ); document.write( "Rearranging, we have a quadratic:
\n" ); document.write( "\"-2000x%5E2-10000x%2B1000000=0\"
\n" ); document.write( "Now, these are all fairly large numbers. Do they have anything in common? They all have at least a factor of 2000 in them, so let's divide both sides by -2000 to get rid of it:
\n" ); document.write( "\"x%5E2%2B5x-500=0\"
\n" ); document.write( "So now, we need to solve this quadratic equation. I will use the quadratic formula:
\n" ); document.write( "\"x+=+%28-b+%2B-+sqrt%28+b%5E2-4%2Aa%2Ac+%29%29%2F%282%2Aa%29+\"
\n" ); document.write( "Here, a=1, b=5, c=-500, so
\n" ); document.write( "\"x+=+%28-5+%2B-+sqrt%28+5%5E2-4%2A1%2A-500+%29%29%2F%282%2A1%29+\"
\n" ); document.write( "\"x+=+%28-5+%2B-+sqrt%2825%2B2000%29%29%2F2\"
\n" ); document.write( "\"x+=+%28-5+%2B-+sqrt%282025%29%29%2F2\"
\n" ); document.write( "\"x+=+%28-5+%2B-+45%29%2F2\"
\n" ); document.write( "So,
\n" ); document.write( "\"x=40%2F2=20\"
\n" ); document.write( "and
\n" ); document.write( "\"x=-50%2F2=-25\"
\n" ); document.write( "However, it's not possible to have -25 people in a club, so the only feasible solution here is 20.
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