graph piecewice function

Question

The community park has a small lake where visitors can rent paddle boats at $1 for 15 minutes, up to 2 hours. After 2 hours, the rate increases to $3 for 30 minutes. How do you graph this?

 

Answer 1

Jeanette,

 

You could create a step-graph with the cost per 15-minute interval on the Y-axis and the number of minutes (in 15-minute intervals) along the X-axis.

 

Alternatively, you could create a graph of final cost after each 15-minute interval on the Y-axis and the number of 15-minute intervals along the X-axis. Ask yourself: After 15 minutes, how much would I have to pay? After 30 minutes, how much would I have to pay? and so on for each subsequent 15-minute interval.

 

Michael.