UPPER MATH105 2020 February Week 3 Discussion Latest

MATH105 College Mathematics/Applications

Week 3 Discussion

How many students would demand a cell phone that costs $3,995? That was the price of the first cell phone available to the public, the DynaTAC8000X, in 1983. By 2011, the average price of a smartphone was $135, and more people were buying cell phones (EconEdLink.org).

Complete the following table to indicate how much you would be willing to pay for a cellphone by Wednesday. Indicate each and every price at which you are willing to pay for a phone. So, if you are willing to pay $500, does that mean you would pay $400, or $300, etc. Maybe not, maybe you would be suspicious of a "cheap" phone and not buy it? You will explicitly answer for each value to be clear. Just a "yes" or "no" answer is sufficient to generate the necessary data. No details as to why you would or would not choose a phone at a given price is required.

After everyone has posted on Wednesday, make a table and count the total number of students who would purchase the cellphones at each of the prices listed below.  Graph the relationship between cost and demand. Compare to Examples 3 and 4 on pages 89 to 90 of the textbook and other relevant areas. For the second part, to be clear, the requirement is to make a graph, not a table. Consider Figure 2.31 on page 88 from Example 1. Plotting the points that way is sufficient. Please add your graph to your own original post.

Relationship between cost and demand

Cost of cell phone           Would you purchase a cell phone at this price?

100      

200      

300      

400      

500      

600      

700      

800      

900      

1000    

1100    

For the cell phone data and Desmos, a scatter plot as documented here may be best.

That being said, there is no requirement to use Desmos to make this graph. Making a bar chard in Excel is also acceptable.

You could also just draw the graph by hand on paper and post a picture of it.