An electrician charges a \( \$ 50 \) house call fee and \( \$ 65 \) per hour the work. a. Write an algebraic expression to represent the situation.

The total cost \( C \) of hiring the electrician can be represented by the expression \( C = 50 + 65h \), where \( h \) is the number of hours worked. This means that every time you call them, there's a starting fee of \( \$50 \), and then for each hour worked, you'll be adding \( \$65 \) to your bill. If you want to figure out the cost for different amounts of work, just plug in a different value for \( h \)! For example, if the job takes 3 hours, you'll have \( C = 50 + 65(3) = 50 + 195 = 245 \), so the total bill would be \( \$245 \).