Question

The drama club is selling tickets for a play. The profit, y, is

modeled by the equation, y = x2 – 40x – 3,200, where x is
the number of tickets sold. What is the total number of
tickets, x, that need to be sold for the drama club to break
even (profit = $0)?

Answer 1

80 tickets

Explanation:

Given the profit, y, modeled by the equation, y = x^2 – 40x – 3,200, where x is the number of tickets sold, we are to find the total number of tickets, x, that need to be sold for the drama club to break even. To do that we will simply substitute y = 0 into the given the equation and calculate the value of x;

y = x^2 – 40x – 3,200,

0 = x^2 – 40x – 3,200,

x^2 – 40x – 3,200 = 0

x^2 – 80x + 40x – 3,200 = 0

x(x-80)+40(x-80) = 0

(x+40)(x-80) = 0

x = -40 and x = 80

x cannot be negative

Hence the total number of tickets, x, that need to be sold for the drama club to break even is 80 tickets