Question

A manufacturer of graphing calculators has determined that 11,000 calculators per week will be sold at a price of $98. At a price of $93, it is estimated that 13,150 calculators would be sold.

(a) Determine a linear function that will predict the number of calculators y that would be sold at a given price x.
(b) Use this model to predict the number of calculators that would be sold each week at a price of $73.

a: ______ b:______

Answer 1

(a) To determine the linear function that predicts the number of calculators sold at a given price, we need to find the equation of the line that passes through the points (98, 11,000) and (93, 13,150).First, we can find the slope of the line using the formula:slope = (change in y) / (change in x)slope = (13,150 - 11,000) / (93 - 98)slope = -430 per 1 dollar decrease in price(Note that we can interpret the negative slope as an inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded. As price decreases, the quantity demanded increases.)Next, we can use the point-slope form of a line to find the equation of the line:y - y1 = m(x - x1)where y1 = 11,000, x1 = 98, and m = -430.y - 11,000 = -430(x - 98)Simplifying and solving for y, we get:y = -430x + 51,340Therefore, the linear function that predicts the number of calculators sold at a given price is:y = -430x + 51,340(b) To predict the number of calculators that would be sold each week at a price of $73, we can substitute x = 73 into the linear function we found in part (a):y = -430(73) + 51,340y = 18,140Therefore, we predict that 18,140 calculators would be sold each week at a price of $73.