Lya took one hour to drive from his apartment to Philips Arena and back. The return drive took 8 minutes less than the trip to the arena. If x represents the time it took Ilya to drive from his apartment to the arena, which equation would you use to determine how long he drove each way?

An hour is 60 minutes.

The trip to the arena + The return drive = 60 mintues.

Since the return drive is 8 minutes shorter, if you added 8 minutes it would be the same length as the trip to the arena.

The return drive + 8 minutes = The trip to the arena

Let's represent these two equations with variables.

x + r = 60

r + 8 = x

What we do now is use substitution. Since r + 8 = x, we can replace x from the first equation with r + 8.

x + r = 60

r + 8 + r = 60

2r + 8 = 60

2r = 52

r = 26

Then use r in an earlier equation to find a.

r + 8 = x

26 + 8 = x

x = 34