home heating oil currently costs $3.75 per gallon, and Chase wants to put gas in his 500-gallon tank.

Question

If n represents the number of gallons of oil he purchases, and c(n) represents the cost of the oil purchase, determine the best domain and range for the function

Answer 1

Domain and range are important for understanding a function. With determining range and domain, it helps to try out some points and even graph on paper. So apparently, gas costs $3.75/gallon. We have a 500 gallon tank in the house and want to know what our constraints are.

 

What is domain? Range?

 

Input. Output.

 

Input a few values and see what outputs, but be practical about them.

1. Can we have -1 gallons of gas purchased?
2. What is the limit for gas we can buy?
3. Output-wise, what would our costs look like as we try 1 gallon, 2 gallons, 3 gallons, and so forth?