The Solution:
Given:
Plan A:
Each text sent or received cost $0.10.
If x=number of texts sent or received in a month, the total cost is:
[tex]0.1x[/tex]
Plan B:
Users pay a fixed charge of $12 and an additional $0.02 for each text sent or received. So, we have the expression for the total charges as:
[tex]\begin{gathered} 12+0.02x \\ \text{ where x = number of texts sent or received.} \end{gathered}[/tex]
Part (a)
Writing the inequality that shows that to use plan A is cheaper than using plan B, we have:
[tex]0.1x<12+0.02x[/tex]
Part (b)
Solving the inequality in part (a) above, we have:
[tex]\begin{gathered} 0.1x<12+0.02x \\ \text{ Collecting the like terms, we get} \\ 0.1x-0.02x<12 \end{gathered}[/tex][tex]0.08x<12[/tex]
Dividing both sides by 0.08, we have:
[tex]\begin{gathered} x<\frac{12}{0.08} \\ \\ x<150 \end{gathered}[/tex]
Therefore, the correct answer is [option 2]