A pre-paid cell phone company charges $$ \$ 15.15 $$ as a monthly access fee and $$ \$ 0.19 $$ per minute of calling time. Express the monthly cost $$ C $$ in terms of minutes of call time. What will the monthly cost be if you make 221 minutes of calls this month? $$ \$ 26.15 $$

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Let's break down the problem step by step to ensure we arrive at the correct monthly cost.

### **a) Expressing the Monthly Cost $$ C $$ in Terms of Minutes of Call Time**

The monthly cost $$ C $$ consists of two components:
1. **Monthly Access Fee:** This is a fixed cost regardless of how much you use the service. In this case, it's \$15.15.
2. **Per Minute Charge:** This varies depending on the number of minutes you use. Here, it's \$0.19 per minute.

Therefore, the total monthly cost $$ C $$ can be expressed as:

$$
C = \text{Monthly Access Fee} + (\text{Cost per Minute} \times \text{Number of Minutes})
$$

Plugging in the given values:

$$
C = 15.15 + 0.19m
$$

where:
- $$ C $$ is the total monthly cost in dollars.
- $$ m $$ is the number of minutes used in the month.

### **b) Calculating the Monthly Cost for 221 Minutes of Calls**

Now, let's calculate the monthly cost when you make **221 minutes** of calls.

Using the formula from part (a):

$$
C = 15.15 + 0.19m
$$

Substitute $$ m = 221 $$:

$$
C = 15.15 + 0.19 \times 221
$$

$$
C = 15.15 + 41.99
$$

$$
C = 57.14
$$

**Therefore, the monthly cost for 221 minutes of calls is \$57.14.**

---

**Note:** It seems there might have been a miscalculation in your initial answer of \$26.15. Always ensure to multiply the per-minute charge by the total minutes and then add the monthly access fee to avoid discrepancies.
The monthly cost $$ C $$ is calculated as $$ C = 15.15 + 0.19m $$, where $$ m $$ is the number of minutes used. For 221 minutes, the cost is \$57.14.

A pre-paid cell phone company charges \( \$ 15.15 \) as a monthly access fee and \( \$ 0.19 \) per minute of calling time. Express the monthly cost \( C \) in terms of minutes of call time. What will the monthly cost be if you make 221 minutes of calls this month? \( \$ 26.15 \)

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