Write an equation for a taxi with a pick up fee of $3 and a charge of $2per/mi in slope-intercept, point-slope, or standard form and explain why you use that form.

Question

Please show me how to do this (don't understand this one)

A cab company charges a fee of $3 to pick up and $2 per/mile. Write an equation in slope-intercept, point-slope, or standard form and explain why you use that form. What do the slope and the y-intercept mean in the context of this propblem?

Answer 1

This is a linear equation, because the cost of the miles alone is directly proportional to the number of miles. It's $2 for each mile. So 10 miles would be 20$, 20 miles would be $40, and so on. If the number of miles is x, then the charge is 2x dollars. But there's a standing charge independent of the mileage, so this fee of 3$ has to be added for each journey giving us 2x+3 as the total cost. We put y=2x+3 where y represents the total cost. This is slope-intercept or standard form. The slope is 2 and the y intercept is 3. The slope is the charge per mile, the intercept is the fixed fee.

Comments

Thank you this helped a lot! I don't know why I have such a hard time with these!