document.write( "Question 271635: Social Security benefits. If you earned an average of
\n" ); document.write( "$25,000 over your working life and you retire after 2005 at
\n" ); document.write( "age 62, 63, or 64, then your annual Social Security benefit
\n" ); document.write( "will be $7000, $7500, or $8000, respectively (Social
\n" ); document.write( "Security Administration, www.ssa.gov). There is a linear
\n" ); document.write( "equation that gives the annual benefit b in terms of age a for
\n" ); document.write( "these three years. Find the equation.
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Algebra.Com's Answer #198907 by Theo(13342)\"\" \"About 
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
your point pairs are (x,y) = :\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "62,7000
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "the slope of the equation will be:\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "(8000 - 7000) / (64 - 62)\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "this becomes 1000 / 2 = 500\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "the equation will be y = 500 * x + b\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "take one of the points and replace x and y with it.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "take the 63,7500 pair.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "the slope intercept form of the equation becomes:\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "7500 = 500*63 + b which becomes:\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "7500 = 31500 + b\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "subtract 31500 from both sides of this equation to get:\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "b = -24000\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "that's the y-intercept of the equation which is the value of y when x = 0\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "your equation is:\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "y = 500x - 24000\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "a graph of your equation is shown below:\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "\"graph+%28600%2C600%2C-10%2C100%2C-30000%2C30000%2C500x+-+24000%29\"\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "a closer view of the graph to show the years of interest better is shown below:\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "\"graph+%281200%2C300%2C-10%2C70%2C-1000%2C10000%2C500x+-+24000%2C7000%2C7500%2C8000%29\"\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "you can see that y = 7000 when x = 62 and y = 7500 when x - 63 and y = 8000 when x = 64.\r
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "the 3 horizontal lines are at y = 7000, 7500, 8000 respectively.\r
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