Question

If the length of Wanda’s telephone call was rounded up to the nearest whole minute by her telephone company, then Wanda was charged for how many minutes for her telephone call?
(1) The total charge for Wanda’s telephone call was 6.50.
(2) Wanda was charged $0.50 more for the first minute of the telephone call than for each minute after the first.

• A. Statement (1) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (2) alone is not sufficient.
• B. Statement (2) ALONE is sufficient, but statement (1) alone is not sufficient.
• C. BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient.
• D. EACH statement ALONE is sufficient.
• E. Statements (1) and (2) TOGETHER are not sufficient

Hint:

When solving word problems, break the problem into smaller parts and combine the information from all available statements.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Step 1: Analyze statement (1).
Statement (1) alone gives us the total charge of \$6.50 but does not provide enough information to determine the number of minutes, as we don’t know the rate per minute.
Step 2: Analyze statement (2).
Statement (2) alone tells us that Wanda was charged \$0.50 more for the first minute than for each subsequent minute. However, we don’t know the total charge or the number of minutes, so statement (2) alone is not sufficient.
Step 3: Combine both statements.
Combining both statements, we know that the total charge was \$6.50, and the first minute costs \$0.50 more than subsequent minutes.
Let \( x \) be the number of minutes Wanda was charged for. The charge for the first minute is \$0.50 more than the charge for each of the remaining \( x-1 \) minutes.
Let the charge for each of the remaining minutes be \( r \). Then: \[ 0.50 + (x-1)r = 6.50 \] We can now solve for \( x \) and \( r \). \[ \boxed{C} \]