Cornet Cable charge $32.50 a month for basic cable television. Each premium channel selected costs an additional $4.95 per month. Write an expression to find the cost of a month of cable service.

a.

32.50c + 4.95

c.

32.50 + 4.95

b.

32.50c + 2 (4.95)

d.

32.50 + 4.95c

What stays constant in a given month? The $32.50 charge.

What varies in a given month? The number of $4.95 charges.

So no matter what happens, you always pay the $32.50 in a month. Obviously, this is the constant, so this will be the constant term. Which solutions have $32.50 as the constant term? (c) and (d)

Now does $4.95 stay constant in a given month? Read the question. Obviously the amount you pay using this amount of money varies depending on how many premium channels you want. So this is a varying term. It will not be constant. So (b) is not right.

The answer is (d). $32.50 + $4.95 times the number of premium channels you want.