Question

The program maintains a list of letter weights in ounces, and another list indicating the corresponding postage cost for first class mail (USPS). Write a program to calculate the postage costs by getting the weight from the user.

Answer 1

Jesse should use kilograms to weigh the heavy package of books and documents. To calculate postage costs with USPS, he needs to understand customary units of weight (ounces and pounds), and perform operations, such as addition and conversions to find the total postage cost.

Step-by-step explanation:

For Jesse working in the mailroom, weighing the package for postage requires knowledge of appropriate metric units of measurement. Since the contents are heavy (books and documents), kilograms are the best unit of measurement to use. When calculating postage costs for first class mail with USPS, customary units of weight, such as pounds and ounces, are commonly used. To calculate the cost for a given weight in ounces, the USPS charges $1.95 for the first 3 ounces; each additional ounce costs $0.17. Therefore, the cost calculation for a package weighing 32 ounces would be $1.95 + $0.17 × (32 - 3) = $1.95 + $0.17 × 29 = $1.95 + $4.93 = $6.88.

Jesse should have the ability to convert and understand equivalent units of weight, such as ounces to pounds and vice versa, to accurately calculate postage costs. Practice problems often involve these conversions and require both addition and subtraction of compound customary units of weight to determine the total weight or cost.