Tom purchases a new car for $21,000 and it depreciates in value each year. The function y =21,000(1-0.15)^x represents this situation. He purchases a motorcycle which also depreciates each year it’s depreciation is represented by the function y = 14,000(1-0.09)^x On a graph of these situations what axis would represent the loss

Question

Tom purchases a new car for $21,000 and it depreciates in value each year. The function y =21,000(1-0.15)^x represents this situation. He purchases a motorcycle which also depreciates each year it’s depreciation is represented by the function y = 14,000(1-0.09)^x   On a graph of these situations what axis would represent the loss

GPT-4o mini · Answer

In the context of the two depreciation functions you've provided, we can interpret the axes for graphing the loss in value of the car and motorcycle over time.

Horizontal Axis (x-axis): This axis typically represents time, measured in years (x). In this case, 'x' will indicate how many years have passed since the purchase of the vehicle.
Vertical Axis (y-axis): This axis represents the value of the vehicle over time (y). In this scenario, 'y' represents the current value of the car or motorcycle after 'x' years of depreciation.

In terms of loss, both values on the vertical axis (y) will decrease over time as 'x' increases, reflecting the depreciation of the vehicles. If you want to specifically show the loss in value over time, you could also plot a third line that represents the original purchase price minus the current value (which would be represented as y - original price = loss).

So to summarize:

x-axis: Time in years (x)
y-axis: Value of the vehicle (y), which decreases over time due to depreciation.

If you were specifically looking to represent the loss, you could calculate the depreciation amount by subtracting the current value (y) from the original value of each vehicle and plot that against time on the y-axis, but typically loss is inferred from the decline of value on the vehicle value graph.