Question

The phone company A Fee and Fee has a monthly cellular plan where a customer pays a flat monthly fee and then a certain amount of money per minute used on the phone. If a customer uses 470 minutes, the monthly cost will be $197.75 if the customer uses 920 minutes, the monthly cost will be $355.A) Find the slope and explain what it means

Answer 1

The slope of the phone company's plan is $0.35 per minute, representing the cost for each additional minute used.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the slope for the phone company A Fee and Fee's monthly cellular plan, we can use the two given points of the plan: (470 minutes, $197.75) and (920 minutes, $355). The slope is calculated as the change in cost divided by the change in minutes, which represents the rate of cost per minute.

The formula for calculating slope (m) is:

m = (y2 - y1) / (x2 - x1)

Applying the points we have:

m = ($355 - $197.75) / (920 - 470)

Now, perform the subtraction:

m = $157.25 / 450

After division, we find:

m = $0.35 per minute

The slope of $0.35 means that the customer pays $0.35 for each additional minute of phone use beyond the flat monthly fee.

Such linear relationships are common in business plans, where flat fees are combined with variable costs that depend on usage.