Question

please help

consumer studies are performed on many goods and services offered to the general public. Last year 4389 such studies were completed. One consumer panel purchased a number of sticks of flavored bubble gum and evaluated their quality based upon taste and length of time the flavor lasted. Gum that costs 6 cents per stick was rated a 5. Gum that costs 15 cents per stick was rated a 9.

What is the linear equation to represent this function?

I am confused to which is indepedent and dependent variable??

Also, is this a step function?

Answer 1

how would i know its a step function?

Answer 2

the equation i get is f(x)=2.25x-5.25

Answer 3

hey

Answer 4

is it (cents,rate) or (rate,cent)?

Answer 5

@amistre64

Answer 6

@myininaya @zepdrix

Answer 7

@jim_thompson5910

Answer 8

@thomaster

Answer 9

how did you get f(x)=2.25x-5.25 ?

Answer 10

um i said that the cent depends on rate so (rate, cent)

Answer 11

(9,15) (5,6)

Answer 12

the slope is 2.25, so then i find b @jim_thompson5910

Answer 13

the independent variable is the price in cents

the dependent variable is the rating

Answer 14

so in goes the price, out comes the rating

you can ask: "what is the rating of 6 cent gum?" plug in x = 6, the independent variable, into the function to get f(x) = 5

Answer 15

wait, im forming a linear function with the word problem right?

Answer 16

yes you are translating the word problem into an equation

Answer 17

oh i switched

Answer 18

so is this a step function?

Answer 19

no it doesn't appear to be

Answer 20

but lets say it costs 6.5 cents, the rating can't be decimal can it?

Answer 21

that is true, you have to round to the nearest cent

Answer 22

so the domain is the set of positive whole numbers

Answer 23

cause there are 4 problems on my worksheet and 3 of them are step functions. so im assuming all of these are step functions

Answer 24

you may be right

Answer 25

ah okay, thanks.

Answer 26

you're welcome