What is the pattern in words if you get paid 15 dollars in 1 hour, 22 dollars in 2 hours, 29 dollars in 3 hours?

1 Answer
MeneerNask
Jan 3, 2015

You can say:
You get $15 for the first hour and $7 for every next.

Or you can say:
You get $8 to get started plus $7 for every hour

You may want to translate that last stement into a lineair equation:

#y = 8 + 7.x = 7x+8#

Where #y# = payment ($), and #x# = hours worked.
#7# is called the slope;
It tells you how #y# changes for every change in #x#
and #8# is the so-called #y#-intercept:
where the graph crosses the #y#-axis (the #y#-value for #x=0#)
(of course, in real life you wouldn't get paid that $8 if you made 0 hours! but this is maths)

With the equation you can easily work out your payment for any number of hours worked.

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