Axia College Material

Appendix E Fueling Up
Motorists often complain about rising gas prices. Some motorists purchase fuel-efficient vehicles and participate in trip reduction plans, such as carpooling and using alternative transportation. Other drivers try to drive only when necessary.

Application Practice
Answer the following questions. Use Equation Editor to write mathematical expressions and equations. First, save this file to your hard drive by selecting Save As from the File menu. Click the white space below each question to maintain proper formatting.

1. Imagine you are at a gas station filling your tank with gas. The function C(g) represents the cost
C of filling up the gas tank with g gallons. Given the equation C ( g ) = 3.03 ( g ) a. What does the number 3.03 represent? The 3.03 is the C which is the cost of filling up the gas tank, per gallon, of the gas.

b. Find C(2).
C(2) = 3.03(2) C(2) = $6.06

c. Find C(9).
C(9) = 3.03(9) C(9) = $27.27

d. For the average motorist, name one value for g that would be inappropriate for this functions
purpose. Explain why you chose that number. 100 would be inappropriate value for C(g) because most motorist tanks are not that big. I think in number less than 20 would be find to represent C(g).

e. If you were to graph C(g), what would be an appropriate domain and range? Explain your
reasoning. The domain would be anything > 0, because you would not purchase gas less than 0 or you cannot purchase negative gas. The range would be C(g) > $0 because gas is not free.

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2. Examine the rise in gasoline prices from 1997 to 2006. The price of regular unleaded gasoline in
January 1997 was $1.26, and in January 2006, the price of regular unleaded gasoline was $2.31 (Consumer price index, 2006). Use the coordinates (1997, 1.26) and (2006, 2.31) to find the slope, or rate of change, between the two points. Describe how you arrived at your answer.

2.31 1.26 2006 1997 1.05 m= 9 m=

m = .11666 or .12 rate of change Use the following formula to determine the slope of the rate of change between the two points.

determine the slope. 3. The linear equation y = 0.15 x + 0.79 represents an estimate of the average cost of gas for year x starting in 1997 (Consumer price index, 2006). The year 1997 would be represented by x = 1, for example, because it is the first year in the study. Similarly, 2005 would be year 9, or x = 9.

y 2 y1 y1 y 2 = x 2 x1 x1 x 2

substitute y2 for 2.31 and y1 for 1.26 and x2 for 2006 and x1 for 1997 to

a. What year would be represented by x = 4? y = 2000

(1, 1997) (9, 2005) (4, 2000)
g = 2005 1997 =1 9 1 y 1997 =1( x 1) y 1997 = x 1 y 1997 +1997 = x 1 +1997 y = x +1996 y = 4 +1996 y = 2000

b. What x-value represents the year 2018? x = 22

(1,1997) (9,2005) (x,2018) y = x + 1996 2018 = x +1996 2018 -1996 = x +1996 - 1996 x = 22 What is the slope, or rate of change, of this equation?

c.

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slope or rate of change is 0.15

d. What is the y-intercept?

y-intercept is 0.79

e. What does the y-intercept represent?

Y-intercept is represented by average cost of gas in 1996.

f. Assuming this growth trend continues, what will the price of gasoline be in the year 2018? How
did you arrive at your answer? y = 0.15(22) + 0.79 y= 3.3 + 0.79 = $4.09 Substitute the 22 in for the x to come up the answer for the equation. 4. The line y = 0.15 x + 0.79 represents an estimate of the average cost of gasoline each year. The line
0.11 x y = .85 0

estimates the price of gasoline in January of each year (Consumer price index, 2006). a. Do you expect the lines to be intersecting, parallel, or perpendicular? Explain your reasoning. The lines are neither parallel or perpendicular. They are not parallel because the equations do not have matching slopes. Perpendicular they are not because the equation reciprocal that equal -1. They will eventually intersect to find out if they will intersect using equation y = mx + b b. Use the equations of the lines to determine if they are parallel. What did you find? y = 0.15x + 0.79 0.11x y = -.85 y = 0.11x + 0.85 slope: .15x slope: .11x

These equations will not be parallel.

c. Did your answer to Part b. confirm your expectation in Part a?

Yes, my answer from part B confirmed my answer in part A. The slopes are not matching so the lines will never be parallel.

References

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Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2006). Consumer price index. Retrieved from http://data.bls.gov/cgibin/surveymost?ap Stephanie C. Williams April 30, 2010 MTH 116

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