Question

Jocelyn is a salesperson who sells computers at an electronics store. She is paid a $2.50 commission for every computer sale she makes and she also makes a guaranteed base pay of $70 each day. Make a table of values and then write an equation for P,P, in terms of x,x, representing Jocelyn's total pay on a day on which she sells xx computers.

Answer 1

The equation is

P = 2.50x + 70

The 2.50x represents the commission made, while the 70 is the base pay.

Plug in nonnegative whole numbers for x to find corresponding values of P

For example, plug in x = 0 to find that

P = 2.50x + 70 = 2.50*0 + 70 = 70

Showing that selling 0 computers earns her $70

Then try x = 1

P = 2.50x + 70 = 2.50*1 + 70 = 72.50

She now earns $72.50

Keep this process going to generate as many pairs of values as you want. One possible table is shown below

`\begin{array} \cline{1-2}\text{x} & \text{P}\\\cline{1-2}0 & 70\\\cline{1-2}1 & 72.50\\\cline{1-2}2 & 75\\\cline{1-2}3 & 77.50\\\cline{1-2}4 & 80\\\cline{1-2}5 & 82.50\\\cline{1-2}\end{array}`

Each time x goes up by 1, P goes up by 2.50