Sam opens a savings account with $800. He saves $50 per month. Assume that he does not withdraw money or make any additional deposits.

Sam opens a savings account with $800. He saves $50 per month. Assume that he does not withdraw money or make any additional deposits.

Write a linear model (equation) that represents the total amount of money Sam deposits into his account after m months.
Equation:
b. After how many months will Sam have more than $3500? Show your work.
c. Use the equation and create a table to represent the situation.

Solution:

Savings = 800 + 50m

$800 is the initial savings and $50 are saved every month. By adding these two, we will get the total savings.

B) Use 3500 in the above equation

3500 = 800 + 5m

Taking 800 to other side

5m = 3500 - 800

5m = 2700

m = 2700/5 = 540

It will take him 540 months to save $3500. So we can say that it will take him 541 months to make more than $3500.

C) Make a table with two columns: Months and Total Savings

Take random values of m, put those values in the equation to get total savings for that month.

m savings
0 800
2 810
4 820
6 830