Final answer:
C(5) represents the total cost of purchasing and maintaining a piece of equipment for 5 years. It includes both purchase and maintenance costs accumulated over that period. The correct answer is (a).
Step-by-step explanation:
The student is asking about the interpretation of the function C(x), which represents the total cost of purchasing and maintaining a piece of equipment for x years. When the function is called with a specific value, such as C(5), it represents the total cost of purchasing and maintaining the equipment for that many years. In this case, for 5 years. The correct answer is (a) The total cost for 5 years, as this includes both the initial purchase cost and the accumulated maintenance costs over the specified period.