An electrician uses the equation C = 45t + 60 to calculate what he charges to work on a project. C is the total cost in dollars of what he will charge, and t is the number of hours the project takes to complete. What are the interpretations of the slope and intercept in the equation?

Question

Maddox Quinn

Mathematics

21 March, 21:26

An electrician uses the equation C = 45t + 60 to calculate what he charges to work on a project. C is the total cost in dollars of what he will charge, and t is the number of hours the project takes to complete. What are the interpretations of the slope and intercept in the equation?

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Stephen Cuevas · Answer 1

The slope, 45, would be the amount he charges per hour; the y-intercept, 60, would be the fee he gets paid just for showing up.

Since 45 is multiplied by t, the amount of time, this shows us it is the cost per hour. Since that is the slope, the y-intercept must be 60. We know that y-intercepts are where the data intersects the y-axis; we also know they have an x (t, in this case) coordinate of 0. This means 0 hours have passed, which means it is an up front fee.