Question

Can somebody help me answer this mathematics question? I'm in precalculus, and this is the last homework question, but I am stumped. I tried asking on Quora, but I got an unclear answer and one that accused me of cheating because I asked. I could not understand the teacher's or the book's explanation on how to solve this problem.

"The cost of sending mail is $0.37 for a letter weighing less than 1 ounce, $0.60 for a letter weighing at least one ounce, but less than 2 ounces, and $0.83 for a letter weighing at least 2 ounces, but less than 3 ounces."
Write a function c(x) that gives the cost of mailing a letter weighing x ounces.

Answer 1

Explanation:

this is a piecewise function

in this context, to find the cost of any package weight x you figure out which piece of the function it fits in.

examples:

x = .5

c(x) = 0.37 (because x is less than 1)

x = 1

c(x) = 0.60 (because x is equal to 1 but still less than 2)

x = 2.9

c(x) = 0.83 (because x is more than 2 but less than 3)