3. The accountant charged \( \$ 35 \) for the first hour of work and \( \$ 23 \) for each hour after that. He earned a total of \( \$ 127 \). How many hours did he work?

To determine how many hours the accountant worked, we start with the total earned, which is \( \$ 127 \). He charged \( \$ 35 \) for the first hour, leaving \( 127 - 35 = 92 \) dollars for the subsequent hours. Since he charges \( \$ 23 \) for each of those hours, we set up the equation \( 23x = 92 \) to solve for \( x \). When we divide \( 92 \) by \( 23 \), we find that \( x = 4 \). This means he worked 4 hours after the first hour. Adding the first hour to this, the total number of hours worked is \( 4 + 1 = 5 \) hours. So, the accountant worked a total of **5 hours**.