Question

If the price of stock P has been increasing at the rate of nine cents each hour and the price was $15.32 at noon, and another stock price has been decreasing at the rate of $0.13 each hour, how many hours will it take for the prices of the two stocks to be the same?

Answer 1

The equation to find when the prices of two stocks will be the same is derived by setting the increasing and decreasing price functions equal to each other. Without the initial price of the second stock, we cannot calculate the exact time at which the equality will occur.

Step-by-step explanation:

Let's assume the price of stock P is $15.32 at noon and increases at a rate of nine cents per hour. Let's represent this with the equation P(t) = 15.32 + 0.09t, where t is the number of hours since noon. If another stock's price is decreasing at the rate of $0.13 per hour, we can represent it as Q(t) = Q0 - 0.13t, where Q0 is the initial price of the second stock at noon.

To find out when the prices will be the same, we need to set these equations equal to each other: 15.32 + 0.09t = Q0 - 0.13t. Combining like terms gives us 0.22t = Q0 - 15.32. Dividing both sides by 0.22 we get t = (Q0 - 15.32) / 0.22. However, without the initial price of the second stock (Q0), we cannot find the exact time t at which both stock prices will be equal.