Question

United Express, a national package delivery service, charges a base price for overnight delivery of packages weighing 1 pound or less and a surcharge for each additional pound (or fraction thereof). A customer is billed $21.85 for shipping a 44-pound package and $58.60 for a 1919-pound package. Find the base price and the surcharge for each additional pound. The base price is $ ___________.

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct answer is the base price is $14.50 and surcharge is $2.45 per pound.

Step-by-step explanation:

United Express charges a base price on packages weighing less than or equal to 1 pound and a surcharge for additional pounds.

Let the base price be $b and surcharge be $s.

For a 4 pound package, the customer is billed $21.85. Therefore the equation of his billing looks like b + 3s = 21.85.

For a 19 pound package, the customer is billed $58.60. Therefore the equation of his billing looks like b + 18s = 58.60.

Subtracting both the equation from each other we get 15s = 36.75

⇒ s = $2.45 and b = $14.50.

Thus the base price is $14.50.