Question

Zoe is a salesperson who sells computers at an electronics store. She is paid a 1% commission for every computer sale she makes, and also makes a base pay each day regardless of sales. One day, Zoe sold $8000 worth of computers and was paid a total of $140 that day. Write an equation for the function P ( x ) , P(x), representing Zoe's total pay on a day on which she sells x x dollars worth of computers.

Answer 1

Given:

Zoe gets paid a 1% commission for every sale she makes in addition to base pay.

She sold $8,000 worth of computers on a day and made $140 that day.

To find:

A function P(x) representing total pay on a day where she sells x dollars worth of computers.

Solution:

To determine the function P(x) we need to determine how much Zoe's base pay per day is.

One day, she sold $8,000 worth of computers and made $140 that day.

She gets a commission of 1% for $8,000.

1% of $8,000 $= \frac{1}{100} (8,000) = 80.$

So she got paid $140 out of which $80 was a commission.

So her base pay $= 140-80 = 60.$

So Zoe's base pay is $60 a day.

P(x) is the sum of her base pay and 1% of the amount of computer sales she makes ($x).

So $P(x) = 60 + (0.01)x$, where x is the computer sales she makes in dollars. P(x) is represented in dollars.