Question

Eric and Nancy both had a successful year selling fish tanks for thelrrespective employers, and so they were both given raises.Eric: Eric's base salary is still $1400, but now he makes a commission of$100 for each fish tank that he sells.Nancy: Nancy now gets a base salary of $500 per month, but her commissionhas stayed the same at $250 per fish tank.Eric and Nancy still want to make sure that they contribute the same amountto their total monthly income, and Nancy proposes using algebra to figureout how many fish tanks that they would each need to sell. She tells Ericthat he can calculate his monthly income by using the formula f(x) = 100x +1400. She says that she can calculate her own salary by using the functiong(x) = 250x + 500.1.What does the variable x represent in Nancy's formulas?How do you know?2.Who makes more if they each sell 4 fish tanks? Show all your work.3.Who makes more if they each sell 8 fish tanks? Again, show all your work.4.How many fish tanks would each person need to sell so that theymade the same amount of money?

Answer 1

We are given two functions: One that represents the salary of Eric for selling x fish tanks and one that represents the salary of Nancy for selling x fish tanks.

Eric's formula would be

$100\cdot x+1400$

and Nancy's formula would be

$250\cdot x+500$

we are told that we want to calculate their earnings if they both sell 4 fish tanks each. So, we take this formulas, replace the value of x by 4 and then check how makes more.

For Eric, his earnings would be

$100\cdot(4)+1400=400+1400=1800$

and for Nancy, her earnings would be

$250\cdot4+500=1000+500=1500$

So, in this case, Eric would earn more than Nancy for selling 4 fish tanks.