Two companies sell software products. In 2010. Company 1 had total sales of $17.2 million. Its marketing department projects that sales will increase by $1.5 million per year for the next several years.

Company 2 had total sales of $9.6 million for software products in 2010 and predicts that its sales will increase $2.3 million each year on average. Let x represent the number of years since 2010.

a. Write an equation that represents the total sales, in millions of dollars, of Company 1 since 2010. Let S represent the total sales in millions of dollars.

b. Write a single equation to determine when the total sales of the tow companies will be the same.

c. Write a single equation to determine when the total sales of the two companies will be the same.

d. Solve the equation in part c and interpret the result.

a. The equation that represents the total sales, in millions of dollars, of Company 1 since 2010 is:

S = 17.2 + 1.5x

Where S is the total sales in millions of dollars and x is the number of years since 2010.

b. To determine when the total sales of the two companies will be the same, we need to set their total sales equations equal to each other:

17.2 + 1.5x = 9.6 + 2.3x

Where 17.2 represents the total sales of Company 1 in 2010, 9.6 represents the total sales of Company 2 in 2010, 1.5x represents the increase in sales for Company 1 per year, and 2.3x represents the increase in sales for Company 2 per year.

c. The equation to determine when the total sales of the two companies will be the same is:

17.2 + 1.5x = 9.6 + 2.3x

d. To solve the equation, we can start by getting all the terms with x on one side of the equation:

1.5x - 2.3x = 9.6 - 17.2

-0.8x = -7.6

Then, we can divide both sides by -0.8 to solve for x:

x = (-7.6) / (-0.8)

x = 9.5

The result, x = 9.5, represents the number of years since 2010 when the total sales of the two companies will be the same.

Interpretation: The total sales of the two companies will be the same after approximately 9.5 years since 2010.