A lone distance call costs 40 cents for the first three minutes and 10 cents for each additional minute. At most how many minutes can a person talk and not exceed $2?

Answer: at most, the person can talk for 11 minutes.

Step-by-step explanation:

Let x represent the number of minutes of call that the person made.

A long distance call costs 40 cents for the first three minutes. Converting 40 cents to dollars, it becomes

40/100 = $0.4

This means that the cost for the first three minutes will be

0.4 * 3 = $1.2

After the first three minutes, each additional minutes cost 10 cents. Converting 10 cents to dollars, it becomes

10/100 = $0.1

This means that the total cost for x minutes will be

1.2 + 0.1 (x - 3)

Therefore, to determine the number of minutes that a person talk and not exceed $2, it becomes

1.2 + 0.1 (x - 3) ≤ 2

0.1 (x - 3) ≤ 2 - 1.2

0.1x - 0.3 ≤ 0.8

0.1x ≤ 0.8 + 0.3

0.1x ≤ 1.1

x ≤ 1.1/0.1

x ≤ 11