Question

an electric board determines its monthly bills for residential customers by charging a base price of $17.00 plus an energy charge of 13.21 cents for each kilowatt - hour (kwh) used. write an equation for the monthly charge y (in dollars) as a function of x, the number of kwh used.

( y = )
(type an expression using x as the variable. use integers or decimals for any numbers in the expression. do not include the $ symbol in your answer.)

Explanation:

Step1: Convert cents to dollars

Since 1 cent = $0.01$, 13.21 cents is $13.21\times0.01 = 0.1321$ dollars per kWh.

Step2: Determine the total charge function

The base price is $17.00$, and the energy charge is $0.1321$ dollars per kWh for $x$ kWh. So the total monthly charge $y$ is the base price plus the energy charge, which gives the equation $y = 17 + 0.1321x$.

Answer:

$y = 17 + 0.1321x$