david’s mom wants to calculate how much it will cost to drive from los angeles, ca, to san francisco, ca. gas costs $4.00 a gallon, and the gas mileage of their car is 38 miles/gallon. what additional information does david’s mom need to do this calculation?
She needs to know the distance from LA to SF.
Call that distance x. Then you can calculate the cost from:
# of gallons consumed: x miles / 38 miles/ gallon = (x/38) gallons
After that,
cost = # gallons cost per gallon = (x/38) gallons 4 $/gallon = 4x/38 $