Question

A police department believes that the number of serious crimes which occur each month can be estimated by the equation c=1200-12.5p where c equals number of serious crimes per month and p equals the number of officers assigned to preventive patrol.If c if graphed on the vertical axis a)Identify the slope and interpret its meaning b(Identify the c intercept and interpret its meaning c)Identify the p intercept and interpret its meaning

Answer 1

a) -12.5; the crimes committed goes down by 12.5 every time there are more police officers assigned to patrol.

b) 1200. The number of crimes committed if no police officers were on patrol.

c) 96. The hypothetical number of police officers on duty if no crime were to ever occur.

Explanation:

The intercepts are found by substituting 0 for the other variable in the equation.

For example, if you wanted to find the C intercept, all you have to do is make P = 0, so you would end up with C = 1200 - (12.5 * 0), which simplifies down to 1200.

You would apply the same strategy to find the P intercept.