Financial Literacy

Question

. A local newspaper charges for its classified ads. Letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation each

counts as one character. They charge $49 for the first 150 characters and $0.25 for each

additional character.

a. If x represents the number of characters in the ad, express the cost c(x) of an ad as a

piecewise function.

b.What is the cost for a 325 character ad.

Answer 1

Hello, Kori,

We have a minimum charge of $49, regardless of how many characters, up to 150.

So the first expression would be:

c(x) = $49 for x <= 150 (1)

Above 150 characters, we need to add $0.25 per character (0.25x) for every character above 150. This would be a second relationship for x>150:

c(x) = $49 + 0.25(x-150) for x>150 (2)

The cost of a 325 character ad would be found from the second equation, since x > 150

c(325) = $49 + $0.25(325 - 150)

c(235) = $92.75

Bob