Answer: In the given function e = 5x - 75, the variable e represents the amount of money (in dollars) a mail carrier earns to deliver mail to h houses each day, and x represents the number of houses.
To identify the rate of change and the initial value, we can compare the function to the standard form of a linear equation: y = mx + b, where y represents the dependent variable (in this case, e), x represents the independent variable (in this case, x), m represents the rate of change, and b represents the initial value.
Comparing the given function e = 5x - 75 to the standard form y = mx + b, we can see that:
m (the coefficient of x) = 5
b (the constant term) = -75
Therefore, the rate of change is 5, and the initial value is -75.