You work for a rental car company. If customers return a car with under half a tank of gas, they are charged $7.50 per gallon of gas to fill up the tank. Otherwise, it costs $5.75 per gallon of gas to fill up the tank. A customer returns a rental car that has a tank capacity of 21 gallons. If the rental car is returned with 1,800 fluid ounces of gasoline in it, how much should you charge the customer to fill the tank?

A.

$12.14

B.

$23.04

C.

$39.89

D.

$52.03

The correct answer is C. $ 39.89

Step-by-step explanation:

1. Let's review the information given to us to answer the questions correctly:

Tank capacity = 21 gallons

Cost of gallon of gas when the car is returned with under half a tank = $ 7.50

Cost of gallon of gas when the car is returned with more than half a tank = $ 5.75

Gas in the tank of the rental car = 1,800 fluid ounces

2. How much should you charge the customer to fill the tank?

Let's recall that 1 gallon = 128 fluid ounces

Now, we will answer the question this way, converting the tank capacity from gallons to fluid ounces:

Capacity of the gas tank = 21 * 128 = 2,688 fluid ounces

Like 1,800 is above the 50% of the tank, we will charge $ 5.75 per gallon to fill up the tank

Now, we calculate the cost of gas per fluid ounce, this way:

Cost per fluid ounce = 5.75/128 = $ 0.04492

Finally, we calculate how many fluid ounces the customer has to pay this way:

We will charge the customer = (2,688 - 1,800) * 0.04492

We will charge the customer = $ 39.89

The correct answer is C. $ 39.89