Question

A phone company charges $0.50 per minute and a connection fee of $1. If you were to represent the total cost y of an x minute call, which of the two fees would be the slope of the line?

Answer 1

Per minute value fee would be the slope of the line.

Explanation:

Given:

Per minute charges by the phone company = $ 0.50

Connection fee (fixed) charged by company = $ 1.0

We have to represent the total cost in terms of y and also explain the slope of the line.

According to the question:

Let the number of minutes be "x" .

And the total cost charged be "y" .

So,

The total cost = (No. of minutes)(Per minute charge) + Connection fee

Re-arranging in term of x and y.

⇒
`total\ cost = (no.\ of\ minutes)(per\ minute\ charge) + connection\ fee`

⇒
`y=0.50(x)+1` ...equation (i)

Slope- intercept form:
`y=m(x) +b` m is the slope and b is the y-is intercept.

⇒ Comparing equation (i) with the slope- intercept form.

⇒
`m=0.50` and
`b=1`

So,

The slope of the line is 0.50 which is also represented by the per minute value of the call.

Per minute value fee would be the slope of the line.