Welcome to Westonci.ca, the place where your questions find answers from a community of knowledgeable experts. Experience the ease of finding quick and accurate answers to your questions from professionals on our platform. Explore comprehensive solutions to your questions from knowledgeable professionals across various fields on our platform.

A cell phone company charges by the minute for making phone calls. Arionna's plan includes 300 minutes in the [tex]$20 monthly base cost. If she uses more than 300 minutes in a month, there is a $[/tex]5 overage fee and an additional charge of $0.25 per minute.

Which graph represents the monthly cost, [tex]\( y \)[/tex], in dollars for making [tex]\( x \)[/tex] minutes of calls?

Sagot :

To solve this problem, let's carefully break down the cell phone plan's billing structure and then construct the corresponding graph. Here's the step-by-step walkthrough:

### Step 1: Understand the Billing Structure
1. Base Cost:
- Arionna's plan costs [tex]$\$[/tex] 20[tex]$ per month for up to 300 minutes of calls. 2. Overage Charges: - If Arionna uses more than 300 minutes, she incurs an additional $[/tex]\[tex]$ 5$[/tex] overage fee.
- Beyond the 300 minutes, there is also a charge of [tex]$\$[/tex] 0.25$ per minute.

### Step 2: Construct the Cost Function
- Let [tex]\( x \)[/tex] be the number of minutes Arionna uses in a month.
- The cost [tex]\( y \)[/tex] in dollars will have two cases based on whether [tex]\( x \)[/tex] is within the included minutes or exceeds it.

#### Case 1: [tex]\( x \leq 300 \)[/tex]
For [tex]\( x \)[/tex] up to and including 300 minutes, Arionna only pays the base cost:
[tex]\[ y = 20 \][/tex]

#### Case 2: [tex]\( x > 300 \)[/tex]
For [tex]\( x \)[/tex] exceeding 300 minutes, Arionna pays the base cost plus the overage fee and the additional per-minute charge for each minute beyond 300:
[tex]\[ y = 20 + 5 + 0.25(x - 300) \][/tex]
[tex]\[ y = 25 + 0.25(x - 300) \][/tex]

Simplifying further:
[tex]\[ y = 25 + 0.25x - 75 \][/tex]
[tex]\[ y = 0.25x - 50 \][/tex]

### Step 3: Piece Together the Function
Combining both cases, the function for the monthly cost [tex]\( y \)[/tex] based on [tex]\( x \)[/tex] minutes is:
[tex]\[ y = \begin{cases} 20 & \text{if } 0 \leq x \leq 300 \\ 0.25x - 50 & \text{if } x > 300 \end{cases} \][/tex]

### Step 4: Graph the Function
- For [tex]\( x \)[/tex] from [tex]\( 0 \)[/tex] to [tex]\( 300 \)[/tex]: The graph is a horizontal line at [tex]\( y = 20 \)[/tex].
- For [tex]\( x > 300 \)[/tex]: The graph is a line with a slope of [tex]\( 0.25 \)[/tex] starting from the point [tex]\( (300, 20) \)[/tex].

We start at [tex]\( (300, 20) \)[/tex]:
- At [tex]\( x = 300 \)[/tex], [tex]\( y = 20 \)[/tex].
- Then as [tex]\( x \)[/tex] increases by 1 minute, [tex]\( y \)[/tex] increases by [tex]\( 0.25 \)[/tex].

### Visual Representation
Below is a simulated range and their calculated costs:
- [tex]\( x \)[/tex] ranges from [tex]\( 0 \)[/tex] to [tex]\( 600 \)[/tex] minutes with [tex]\( 1000 \)[/tex] points in-between.
- The graph [tex]\( y \)[/tex] values are segmented where all minutes up to [tex]\( 300 \)[/tex] have the cost [tex]\( y = 20 \)[/tex] and beyond that, the cost starts increasing linearly.

For illustration purposes, here are the selected values across the range:
[tex]\[ x = [0, 0.6006006, 1.2012012, ..., 599.3993994, 600] \][/tex]
[tex]\[ y = [20, 20, 20, ..., 99.54954955, 100] \][/tex]

- Notice for [tex]\( x \leq 300 \)[/tex]: [tex]\( y = 20 \)[/tex].
- For [tex]\( x > 300 \)[/tex], cost increases like [tex]\( y = 25 + 0.25(x - 300) \)[/tex].

### Graphical Representation:
When plotting the function:
1. From [tex]\( x = 0 \)[/tex] to [tex]\( x = 300 \)[/tex], the line will be straight and horizontal at [tex]\( y = 20 \)[/tex].
2. From [tex]\( x = 300 \)[/tex] onwards, the line will slope upwards starting linearly from [tex]\( y = 20 \)[/tex].

This visual represents how the monthly cost changes with the number of minutes used, adhering to Arionna's plan structure.