Question

Jimmy is having a birthday party at the zoo. The zoio has a fixed fee for birthday parties, plus a fee per person. Jimmy is told the total charge for ten people,including himself, would be 97. 50 and the total charge for 20 people, including himself would be $175. Determine the independent and dependent variable

Answer 1

• independent: number of persons
• dependent: charges

Explanation:

The scenario describes charges as being dependent on the number of persons. That means the independent variable is the number of persons, and the dependent variable is the total charge.

(When we say "A depends on B", that automatically defines A as being the dependent variable, and B the independent variable.)

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Additional comment

Perhaps you also want to know the relationship between the charges c and the number of persons p. That will be ...

c = 7.80p +19.00

You know the rate per person from the fact that adding 10 people to the party raises the cost by $78. Then the 10-person charge includes a fixed fee of $97 -78 = $19.