Question

A company has determined that the number of items it sells varies inversely as the price of the item. If 20,000 items can be sold if the price is $9.50, how many items can be sold of the price is $8.75? Round your answer to the nearest whole number.

Answer 1

Let N be the number of items sold and p the price.
Since the variation is inverse, then the relation between N and p is:

`N=k(1)/(p)`
For N=20000 and p = $9.5, we get the formula:

`20000=k(1)/(9.5)\\p=20000*9.5=190000`
If p = 8.75, then the number of items sold can be computed using the formula:

`N= 190000(1)/(8.75)=21714 \text{ total items}`