Question

You work for a video streaming company that has two monthly plans to choose from:

Plan 1: A flat rate of $7 per month plus 2.50 per video viewed

Plan 2: $4 per video viewed

Define variables that make sense in the context, and then write an equation with cost as a function of videos viewed, representing each monthly plan.

Let x =______________ Let y =______________

Plan 1 equation: _________________
Plan 2 equation: ________________

Answer 1

Let x = amount of videos viewed

Let y = the total cost of the streaming service

Plan 1 Equation:
`y=2.50x+7\\`

Plan 2 Equation:
`y=4x`

Explanation:

Here we are looking to define our variables, and then form equations using them. We can use the slope-intercept form equation >
`y=mx+b\\`, where m is the slope, or the amount per viewed. X is how many videos have been viewed, and b is the flat rate, or how much at the start of the month.

The 1st equation requires 7 dollars a month along with the video fee, but the second one doesn't have a fee, so we don't include b.

Using the formula for slope-intercept, we can plug 2.5 and 7 for plan 1, and 4 for plan 2.