ro purchase \( \$ 11.500 \) worth of restaurant equipment for her business, Amy made a down payment of \( \$ 1500 \) and took out a business loan for the rest. After years of paying monthly payments of \( \$ 304.23 \), she finally paid off the loan. (a) What was the total amount Amy ended up paying for the equipment (including the down payment and monthly payments)? \( \$ \square \) (b) How much interest did Amy pay on the loan?

We start by noting that the equipment cost was US$11,500. Amy paid US$1,500 up‐front and financed the remaining   11,500 – 1,500 = US$10,000 with a business loan. Although the problem says “after years of paying monthly payments of US$304.23” it does not state the number of payments explicitly—in many textbook problems a three‑year (36‑month) term is assumed. (If the number of payments were different, the numerical answers below would change accordingly.) Assuming a 36‑month term, the total paid on the loan via monthly payments is   36 × 304.23 = US$10,952.28. (a) To find the total amount Amy ended up paying for the equipment, we add the down payment to the sum of the monthly payments:   Total paid = down payment + total monthly payments         = 1,500 + 10,952.28         ≈ US$12,452.28. (b) The interest paid on the loan is the extra amount over the original loan amount. Since the loan was for US$10,000, the interest is   Interest = total monthly payments – financed amount      = 10,952.28 – 10,000      ≈ US$952.28. Thus, under the assumption of a 36‑month repayment term: • (a) Amy paid approximately US$12,452.28 in total. • (b) Of that, about US$952.28 was interest. If the loan term were different from 36 months, you would simply compute the number of monthly payments (n) so that   Total paid on loan = 304.23 × n,   Total cost = 1,500 + (304.23 × n),   Interest = (304.23 × n) – 10,000. But with the common 36‑month assumption the answers above hold.