Let the parking hours be x per month, and the fee be y. In the first case, fee is fixed and not dependent on number of hours. i.e. y is independent of x. The equation in this case is y = 150. In the second case, the fee is $2 per hour. Or the equation is y = 2*x. Taking the two equations----> (1) ----> (2) They intersect at a point where 2*x = 150 or x = 75. Obviously, if the parking hours > 75, he has to pay a fee of more than the flat fee of 150. Since he needs 160 hours of parking per month, the first option of $150 is clearly better. Option 2 is better only if he is parking for < 75 hours per month. Hope you got it :) See the graph below.