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At a price of $2, there is a surplus of 6 units. At a price of $5, there is a surplus of 25 units. At a price of $5, there is a shortage of $25. At a price of $7, there is a surplus of 4 units. What is the relationship between price and quantity?

1) As the price increases, the quantity supplied increases
2) As the price increases, the quantity supplied decreases
3) As the price decreases, the quantity supplied increases
4) As the price decreases, the quantity supplied decreases

User Leo Prince
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1 Answer

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Final answer:

As the price of a product goes up, the quantity of the product that suppliers are willing to provide also increases, as higher prices mean more profit for producers.

Step-by-step explanation:

Direct answer in 2 lines: The relationship between price and quantity is that as the price increases, the quantity supplied also increases. This is because higher prices make it more profitable for producers to expand their output.

Explanation in 200 words: The information given illustrates a fundamental economic principle: the law of supply. As the price of a product increases, producers are more willing to supply more of the product because they can make more profit. This phenomenon is evidenced by the situations described where a surplus (excess supply) gets larger as the price rises. For instance, at a very low price of $2, there's a surplus of only 6 units, indicating that not much product is being supplied beyond what is demanded. However, as the price increases to $5, the surplus increases significantly to 25 units. This sharply increased surplus suggests that producers have responded to the higher price by supplying a lot more of the product, more than the market demands at that price. Additionally, the given reference of gasoline pricing provides a clear example. When the price of gasoline increased from $1.40 to $1.80 per gallon, the quantity supplied rose from 600 to 680 gallons indicating that suppliers were willing to provide more gasoline at the higher price. The increase in quantity supplied at higher prices confirms that as price goes up, quantity supplied increases as well.

User Dbeer
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