High School

A cab company offers a special discount on fare to senior citizens. The following expression models the average amount a cab driver of the company collects on a particular day, where [tex]$x$[/tex] represents the number of senior citizens who travel by the company's cabs:

[tex]\frac{180x}{x+4} + 250[/tex]

What does the constant term in the above expression represent?

A. The constant 250 represents the average amount the company pays a cab driver on a particular day.

B. The constant 250 represents the number of senior citizens who travel by the company's cabs.

C. The constant 250 represents the average amount a cab driver collects on a particular day when no senior citizens travel by the company's cabs.

D. The constant 250 represents the maximum amount a cab driver collects on a particular day when [tex]$x$[/tex] senior citizens travel by the company's cabs.

Answer :

To understand what the constant term in the expression represents, let's break down the problem:

The expression given is:

[tex]\[
\frac{180x}{x+4} + 250
\][/tex]

Here, [tex]\(x\)[/tex] represents the number of senior citizens who travel by the company's cabs. The expression models the average amount a cab driver collects on a particular day.

Now, let's focus on the constant term, [tex]\(250\)[/tex], in this expression:

1. The constant [tex]\(250\)[/tex] is added to the term [tex]\(\frac{180x}{x+4}\)[/tex]. This addition is independent of the number of senior citizens [tex]\(x\)[/tex].

2. To understand its meaning, consider the scenario where no senior citizens travel. In this case, set [tex]\(x = 0\)[/tex]:

[tex]\[
\frac{180 \times 0}{0 + 4} = 0
\][/tex]

3. Thus, when no senior citizens travel, the expression simplifies to just [tex]\(250\)[/tex].

This tells us that the constant [tex]\(250\)[/tex] represents the amount the cab driver collects on a day when there are no senior citizens traveling. Therefore, the correct interpretation of the constant term is:

C. The constant 250 represents the average amount a cab driver collects on a particular day when no senior citizens travel by the company's cabs.