Question

Medals shall be given to the best response :)
Please help, I have difficulty solving such questions.

A photocopying store charges a flat rate of $2 plus $0.05/copy.

(a) Write a function f(x) to represent the average cost per copy.

(b) Determine what happens to the function as x becomes very large.

(c) What is the significance of this value?

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

I forgot to add this but no calculus methods should be used in solving this problem.

Answer 2

you have a flat fee of 2, and each copy .05
so for number of copies use x (a variable for unknown)

so you have
f(x) = 2 + .05x

Answer 3

Let x be number of copies.

Total Cost for Photocopying X = Flat Cost + Pro-rated Cost
= 2 + (0.05)(x) = f(x)

Average Cost for Photocopying X = (2+0.05x) / x

Expanding: 2/x + 0.05
When x tends towards infinity (becomes very large), 2/x tends towards 0,
thus Average Cost tends towards 0.05.

Significance of this value is that average cost for photocopying will tend towards the variable component.

Answer 4

Thank you all so much. I wish I could give all of you medals but it goes to the best response. Thank you so much.