Which information is necessary to solve this story problem? Sam had a total of 14 people at his skating party. The party lasted for 4 hours. He paid $2 for each person's skate rental and $3 for each person's entry ticket.

For the problem we have:

Sam had 14 people at the party.

The party lasted for 4 hours.

He paid $2 for each person's skate rental and 3 for each person's entry ticket.

Suppose we want to know how much Sam spent on the party.

But we do not know if the $2 of the skate rental are per hour or per two hours, or in total, for example, if the amount is per hour, then the total amount for each skate is $2*4 = $8, so in the case that the rental depends on the time, we can not solve this problem because we do not have enough information.

If the $2 are fixed (do not depend on the time that the party lasted) then the fact that the party lasted for 4 hours does not matter.

We can calculate as 14 persons* ($2 + $3) each = 14*$5 = $70, then you can see that in this case the 4 hours data is not necessary

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