1.

Average Cost Application

A cell phone provider offers a new phone for
$600 with a $70 monthly plan. How much
will it cost you monthly to use the phone,
including the purchase price?
$600 is the one time payment (a constant)
and the $70 is the monthly fee (how much
you pay depends on how many months you
are with the company). Therefore, the total
cost function is:
•f(x) = 600 + 70x
•where x is the number of months
Total cost function is a linear function,
where 70 is the slope and 600 is the
constant (the y-intercept, or how much
you pay if you buy the phone but don't
buy/use the plan). However, to know what
the average cost will be, we need to take
the total and divide it by how many
months we'll use the phone service.
Let's see how much will the average cost change depending on how long
you use the phone.

With each month of use, the average cost decreases.

2. Prediction Problem
We can also use the rational function to make
predictions. For example, when will the average
monthly cost be less than $80?
•80x > 600 + 70x

•80x - 70x > 600 + 70x - 70x

•10x > 600

•10x/10 > 600/10

•x > 60
Sixty months!? That's 5 years! You might think twice about buying such
an expensive phone.
3. Average Grade Problem
Let's say you taking an exam. You already got 18 questions out of 23
correct. How many correct answers do you need to get the desired
final grade?
You'll need the ratio of correct answers plus the new number of
correct answers to the total number of questions.

Now that you have the equation, you can use it to calculate the desired final grade. Let's say
it was a tough course and you would be happy with 80% B-.
0.8(23 + x) = 18 + x
18.4 + 0.8x = 18 + x
18.4 + 0.8x - 0.8x = 18 + x - 0.8x
18.4 = 18 + 0.2x
18.4 - 18 = 18 - 18 + 0.2x
0.4 = 0.2x
2=x
You only need 2 additional questions right to get a B- (80%) on the final.
4. The Ski Club at a community college
plans to spend $1,350 to charter a bus
for a trip. The cost will be split evenly
among the students who sign up for
the strip. Each student will also $350
for food, lodging, and ski lift tricked.
a) Find the model of the problem.
b) What is the mean cost per student if
30 student go?
5. A student plans to drive at night from
city A, State A, to City B, state B. He will
drive 257 miles in State A, then 410 miles
in State B. The speed limit is 60 mph in
State A and 55 mph in State B.
a) Let T(v) be the during time (in hours) if
the student drives v mph above the
speed limits. Find an equation of T.
b) By how much would he have to exceed
the speed limits for the driving time to
be 10 hours?