We know that
• Lashonda purchased a prepaid phone card for $20.
,• Long-distance calls cost 8 cents a minute.
,• The remaining credit on her card is $17.12.
This problem can be expressed as
[tex]20-0.08x=17.12[/tex]Where x is the number of minutes.
We solve the equation for x
[tex]\begin{gathered} -0.08x=17.12-20 \\ -0.08x=-2.88 \end{gathered}[/tex]Then, we divide by -0.08 the equation
[tex]\begin{gathered} \frac{-0.08x}{-0.08}=\frac{-2.88}{-0.08} \\ x=36 \end{gathered}[/tex]