Answer:
The total cost of mailing a letter is expressed by: [tex]0.42+(0.17w)[/tex]
The cost for mailing a four-ounce letter is: $1.10
Step-by-step explanation:
First, you have a fixed cost, independent of any other variable, which is [tex]0.42[/tex].
Then you have a cost that is dependent on the weight, expressed in ounces, which is [tex]0.17[/tex] per ounce. This means that if you had [tex]2[/tex] ounces, then your cost would be duplicated, becoming [tex]0.34[/tex], and so on and so forth. Let's define the weight as [tex]w[/tex].
The total cost of mailing a letter equals the base charge (or the fixed cost) plus the cost of the number of ounces that our letter weighs.
We can express this statement in mathematical terms:
[tex]0.42+(0.17*w)=COST[/tex]
Now, we want to know how much it would cost us to mail a letter that weighs [tex]4[/tex] ounces. That means we know the value of the [tex]w[/tex] in our expression, so we can substitute it and solve the expression:
[tex]0.42+(0.17*4)=COST[/tex]
[tex]0.42+0.68=COST[/tex]
[tex]1.1=COST[/tex]
It would cost us $1.10 to send a 4 ounce letter.
