Question

Mr. Smith is trying to decide which Internet service provider (ISP) to use for his home computer. UPLINK offers a flat fee of $19 per month; BLUELINE offers a fee of $10 per month, but charges $0.59 per hour after the first 30 hours.
a) Write the linear relation that models the cost in relation to the number of hours used for each plan.
b) Estimate the point at which the costs for both companies would be the same.

Answer 1

This is not a multiple choice question. There are two parts that need to be answered.

For a), let x = the number of hours that a person uses for a month. For BLUELINE, there is a flat fee of 10, plus $0.59 per hour after the first 30 hours. Since the first 30 hours are not charged, we can subtract (x-30) to get the number of hours charged. The hourly charge is 0.59, so we simply multiply 0.59(x-30) to get the charge for x hours. Add on the flat fee of 10 to get total charge = 59(x-30) + 10. The other company UPLINK simply charges 19, so total charge = 19.

Set the two equations equal to each other and solve for x to find the point where the costs would be the same.