Question

Posted by Aria on Monday, August 29, 2011 at 2:58pm.


This is a concept check on quadratic equation application. I am having trouble with a couple of parts. If anyone can help I would appreciate it.

Suppose you are an event coordinator for a large performance theater. You need to supply information about projected ticket sales to the manager. You provide a quadratic equation that models expected number of sales for each day 'x'. (x=1 is the day tickets go on sale."
Tickets=-2x^2+12x+11

I answered a.
B. Describe what happens to the ticket sales as time passes.

I am not sure how to determine this. Do I determine this by the vertex or line of symmetry?

I answered C.
D.Will tickets peak or be at a low during the middle of the sale? How do you know?

Again, this question stumps me. How do you tell something like this with a parabola?

I would appreciate a detailed explanation. I don't want answers as much as how to determine the information.

Thanks for helping.

Answer 1

For D).....
Your parabola should be negative because of the -2X^2. SO the parabola when you graph it is a backwards U. The middle of the backwards "U" has a high maximum so your tickets should be at a peak during the middle of the sale.

Answer 2

As time passes, the ticket sales get higher. Each time you plug in different values of X, the day tickets go on sale, your Y value increases.

Answer 3

Thank you for your help. I understand a whole lot more.