Investigations with Movie Rentals
Using Excel
Karyn Carson
You want
to join a movie club and there are two in your neighborhood. However, their rates are different and
you canÕt decide which one to join.
Here are the ads for each store:
Movies Are Us
No Membership Fees
$4.50 per rental
Look At Us Video
$5 Membership Fee
$3.50 per rental
Where
should you take your business?
LetÕs take this information and create an equation (also called a function)
so that we can look at this data graphically. What would the functions be?
Movies
are Us: y = 4.5x
Look at
Us Video: y = 3.5x + 5
LetÕs
enter these functions into the spreadsheet program Excel to look at these
situations graphically and see if we can determine which store to sign up with.
|
Number of Videos Rented |
Videos are Us |
Look at Us Videos |
|
1 |
$
4.50 |
$
8.50 |
|
2 |
$
9.00 |
$
12.00 |
|
3 |
$
13.50 |
$ 15.50 |
|
4 |
$
18.00 |
$
19.00 |
|
5 |
$
22.50 |
$
22.50 |
|
6 |
$
27.00 |
$
26.00 |
|
7 |
$
31.50 |
$
29.50 |
|
8 |
$
36.00 |
$
33.00 |
|
9 |
$
40.50 |
$
36.50 |
|
10 |
$
45.00 |
$
40.00 |
|
11 |
$
49.50 |
$
43.50 |
|
12 |
$
54.00 |
$
47.00 |
|
13 |
$
58.50 |
$
50.50 |
|
14 |
$
63.00 |
$
54.00 |
|
15 |
$
67.50 |
$
57.50 |
|
16 |
$
72.00 |
$
61.00 |
|
17 |
$
76.50 |
$
64.50 |
|
18 |
$
81.00 |
$
68.00 |
|
19 |
$
85.50 |
$
71.50 |
|
20 |
$
90.00 |
$
75.00 |
As you
can see, once youÕve rented 5 videos, the total cost paid at Look at Us drops
below the cost at Videos are Us.
At what
point on the graph do you see where it becomes better for us to join Look at
Us?