You are selling rings for $7 dollars each. You have been contacted by a customer in Alaska who wants to purchase several of these rings and wants you to ship them to her. It’s only going to cost you $5 to ship these items to Alaska. Suppose another company sells the same item but charges half of your price. However, if the customer buys from this company, she will be charged $20 in shipping costs. Write two equations to represent the customer’s total cost based on how many items she buys from each of the two sellers—you and the other company.
I'm not exactly sure but here's my guess:
x stands for the number of items the customer buys and y stands for the total cost.
7x + 5 = y
3.5x + 20 = y
Is this right? If not, what's it suppose to be? Thank you! (=
Ms. Sue? Reed? Bobpursley? Please help.
Can someone please help me??? I'd really appreciate it! (=
I agree.
Ok thanks for letting me know!
Yes, you are on the right track!
Let's assign the variables:
- Let x represent the number of items the customer buys.
- Let y1 represent the total cost if the customer buys from your company.
- Let y2 represent the total cost if the customer buys from the other company.
Based on the information given, we can write the equations as follows:
For your company:
Total cost (y1) = Cost of rings (7x) + Shipping cost (5)
=> y1 = 7x + 5
For the other company:
Total cost (y2) = Cost of rings (0.5 * 7x) + Shipping cost (20)
=> y2 = 3.5x + 20
So, your equations are correct! They represent the customer's total cost based on the number of items purchased from each seller.