The equation y = 50 + 40x models the charge for his services y for any number of hours x. a.Graph the equation b. What is the slope of the line? What does the slope represent? c. What is the y-intercept of the line? What does the y-intercept represent?

David does landscaping for private homes. He charges $50 to travel to the site and then $40 per hour for his services. The equation y = 50 + 40x models the charge for his services y for any number of hours x.

1 Answer
Jun 4, 2018

Please see below.

Explanation:

.

#color(red)(a))#

#y=50+40x#

The graph is shown below:

enter image source here

As you can see the line is very steep and hard to distinguish from the #y#-axis. Let's look at the graph where I have given the #x#-axis larger scale than the #y#-axis to make the graph more visible.

enter image source here

#color(red)(b))#

Let's write the equation in the slope-intercept form which is:

#y=mx+b# where #m# is the slope and #b# is the #y#-intercept.

#y=40x+50#

The slope of the line is #m=40#. The slope represents the rate at which the cost of service increases with the increase in time (hours).

#color(red)(c))#

The #y#-intercept of the line is #b=50#. It represents the initial charge at the time the service work starts.