2010 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 8

Problem 8

Tony works $2$ hours a day and is paid $ $0.50$ per hour for each full year of his age. During a six month period Tony worked $50$ days and earned $ $630$ . How old was Tony at the end of the six month period?

$\mathrm{(A)}\ 9 \qquad \mathrm{(B)}\ 11 \qquad \mathrm{(C)}\ 12 \qquad \mathrm{(D)}\ 13 \qquad \mathrm{(E)}\ 14$

Solution

Tony worked $2$ hours a day and is paid $0.50$ dollars per hour for each full year of his age. This basically says that he gets a dollar for each year of his age. So if he is $12$ years old, he gets $12$ dollars a day. We also know that he worked $50$ days and earned $630$ dollars. If he was $12$ years old at the beginning of his working period, he would have earned $12 * 50 = 600$ dollars. If he was $13$ years old at the beginning of his working period, he would have earned $13 * 50 = 650$ dollars. Because he earned $630$ dollars, we know that he was $13$ for some period of time, but not the whole time, because then the money earned would be greater than or equal to $650$ . This is why he was $12$ when he began, but turned $13$ sometime in the middle and earned $630$ dollars in total. So the answer is $13$ .The answer is $\boxed{D}$ . We could find out for how long he was $12$ and $13$ . $12 \cdot x + 13 \cdot (50-x) = 630$ . Then $x$ is $20$ and we know that he was $12$ for $20$ days, and $13$ for $30$ days. Thus, the answer is $13$ .

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2010 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 8

Problem 8

Solution