Axia College Material

Appendix E

Fueling Up
Motorists often complain about rising gas prices. Some motorists purchase fuel-efficient vehicles and
participate in trip reduction plans, such as carpooling and using alternative transportation. Other drivers
try to drive only when necessary.

Application Practice

Answer the following questions. Use Equation Editor to write mathematical expressions and equations.
First, save this file to your hard drive by selecting Save As from the File menu. Click the white space
below each question to maintain proper formatting.

1. Imagine you are at a gas station filling your tank with gas. The function C(g) represents the cost
C of filling up the gas tank with g gallons. Given the equation C ( g ) = 3.03 ( g )

a. What does the number 3.03 represent? $3.03 – cost of fuel per gallon

b. Find C(2). C(2) = 3.03 (2)= $6.06

c. Find C(9). C(9)= 3.03(9)= $27.27

d. For the average motorist, name one value for g that would be inappropriate for this
function’s purpose. Explain why you chose that number. G cannot be a negative value because
you cannot have a negative amount of gallons.

e. If you were to graph C(g), what would be an appropriate domain and range? Explain your
reasoning. Domain would vary, depending on the size of tank. They are usually 20 gal.
DOMAIN= (0,20) c(20)= 60.6, c(0)=0
RANGE= (0,60.6)

2. Examine the rise in gasoline prices from 1997 to 2006. The price of regular unleaded gasoline in
January 1997 was $1.26, and in January 2006, the price of regular unleaded gasoline was $2.31
(“Consumer price index,” 2006). Use the coordinates (1997, 1.26) and (2006, 2.31) to find the slope,
or rate of change, between the two points. Describe how you arrived at your answer.
SLOPE
= (2.31-1.26)/ (2006-1997)
= 1.05/9
= 7/60 = 0.12 12 cents per year

3. The linear equation

y = 0.15 x + 0.79

represents an estimate of the average cost of gas for year x starting in 1997 (“Consumer price index,”
2006). The year 1997 would be represented by x = 1, for example, because it is the first year in the
study. Similarly, 2005 would be year 9, or x = 9.

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 a. What year would be represented by x = 4? 97’ x=1, 1997+3= 2000 x=1+3=4,
1996+x=1996+4=2000 THE YEAR 2000

b. What x-value represents the year 2018? 1997 corresponds to x = 1, so 1997 + 21 = 2018
corresponds to x = 1 + 21 = 22. In other words, x = 2018 - 1996 = 22.
x=22

c. What is the slope, or rate of change, of this equation? 0.15

d. What is the y-intercept? 0.79

e. What does the y-intercept represent? 0.79 is the gas price when x = 0. In other words, in
1996, the gas price is $0.79

f. Assuming this growth trend continues, what will the price of gasoline be in the year
2018? How did you arrive at your answer? 2018 corresponds to x = 22. Plug in x = 22 into the
equation to get
y=0.15(22) + 0.79
y = 4.09

The predicted price of gas in 2018 is $4.09

4. The line

y = 0.15 x + 0.79

represents an estimate of the average cost of gasoline each year. The line

0.11 x − y = −0.85

estimates the price of gasoline in January of each year (“Consumer price index,” 2006).

a. Do you expect the lines to be intersecting, parallel, or perpendicular? Explain your

reasoning. YES I would expect the lines to be parallel because this would mean that the rate of
increase of average prices in January match the rate of increase of average prices in the year.

b. Use the equations of the lines to determine if they are parallel. What did you find? The
average price in January has the slope of 0.11, and the average price each year has a slope of
0.15, the lines are not parallel because the slopes are different.

c. Did your answer to Part b. confirm your expectation in Part a? No, the answer in B did not
confirm my answer of A

References

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2006). Consumer price index. Retrieved from http://data.bls.gov/cgi-
bin/surveymost?ap

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