Pauline's cell phone bill is $39.99 a month for a fixed amount of minutes. For any minute she goes over the allowed amount, she is charged $0.50 per minute. The equation represents her phone bill, where y is the total bill and x is the number of minutes.

Which variable is the independent variable?

A.
x

B.
y

C.
There is no relationship between the variables.

Question

Pauline's cell phone bill is $39.99 a month for a fixed amount of minutes. For any minute she goes over the allowed amount, she is charged $0.50 per minute. The equation   represents her phone bill, where y is the total bill and x is the number of minutes.

Which variable is the independent variable?
 
 A.
x
 
 B.
y
 
 C.
There is no relationship between the variables.

rosedewittbukater · Answer

I'm guessing the equation is y = 0.5x + 39.99
The independent variable is the one that can change on it's own. It doesn't depend on another variable to change.
The number of minutes x is the independent variable. 
Y (the total cost) is dependent because it changes only when the number of minutes change.

rosedewittbukater · Answer

So the answer is A.

anonymous · Answer

Oops, the equation is y=$39.99 + 0.50x

anonymous · Answer

Thanks!