Function as Models of Real Life situations

Functions can be used to predict the outcomes of certain physical events or real-life
situations. For example, a function can predict the maximum height a projectile will
reach when fired with an initial velocity, or the number of movie tickets that will be sold
at a given price.

Example 1:
The graph shows the number of music CDs sold at various prices. At what price should
the CDs be marked to sell the maximum number of CDs?

(A) 0
(B) 5
(C) 10
(D) 15
(E) 20
Solution:

As you read the graph from left to right, it shows that sales initially increase rapidly and
then slow to a maximum of about 300,000. From there, sales drop precipitously and
then slowly approach zero as the price continues to increase. From the graph, sales of
300,000 units on the y-axis correspond to a price of about $10 on the x-axis. The
answer is (C).

Example:2

Arnold is working in a job that pays him $8/hr, if he works for 40 hours or less for a
week. He gets 1.5 times his hourly rate for the hours he works beyond 40 hours.

a) Write and Graph the piecewise function that will give the weekly pay ‘p’ in terms
of the number of hours ‘h’ he works.

b) What is the amount he will get if he works for 42 hours.

The pay for any number of hours between 0 and 40 is 8h.

Beyond 40 hours, he will get 1.5 times his hourly pay for every hour. This means, he will
get a pay of

8h + (1.5)(8)(h – 40) = 8(40) + 12(h – 40) = 12h – 160

The Piecewise function is:

Graph of Piecewise function

b)The pay he will get when he works for 42 hours in a week.

Substitute h = 42 in the equation, p(h) = 12h – 160

P(42) = 12(42) – 160 = 344

Hence, he will get a pay of $344 if he works for 42 hours in a week.

 Practice Questions
1) A pottery store owner determines that the revenue for sales of a particular
item can be modeled by the function , where x is the number
of the items sold. How many of the items must be sold to generate $110 in
revenue?
(A) 5
(B) 6
(C) 7
(D) 8
(E) 9
2) The figure below shows the graph of for some constant a . If the
square ABCD intersects the graph at points A and B and the area of the square is 16,
what is the value of a ?

(A) 2
(B) 4
(C) 6
(D) 8
(E) 10
3) The graph below shows a parabola that is symmetric about the x-axis. Which one of
the following could be the equation of the graph?

(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(E)

4) Does the equation y 2 + x = 1 represents a function y in terms of x?

a) Linear function

b) Quadratic function

c) Not a function

d) None of the above.

5) Function f is defined by f(x) = - 2 x 2 + 6 x – 3. find f(- 2).

a) 23

b) -23

c) 24

d) 25

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