Question 1108179: algebraic function : A vending machine has three buttons, labeled A, B, and C. The cost is the same for all three buttons. If you press A, you get a pound of fertilizer. If you press B, you get a pet rat. If you press C, you randomly get either fertilizer or a pet rat. Given a situation where a person wants both fertilizer and a rat, but only has money for one or the other, which button do you think will be used the most, and why? Which one would get pushed least?
Answer by Theo(13342)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! if he wants fertilizer and a rat, then he has to push buttons more than once.
to minimize the number of times he has to push the button, he would push the fertilizer button one time and the rat button one time.
that's 2 pushes of a button and he gets what he want.
if he pushed the button that gives him a fertilizer or a rat, then he might have to push the button more than 2 times to get what he wants.
it is possible that the first time he pushes the button that gives him fertilizer or a rat, that he gets fertilizer, and the next time he pushes the same button, he gets fertilizer again.
in fact, he may have to push that button several times before he gets a rat.
so, to minimize the number of times he has to push a button, he should choose the fertilizer button the first time and the rat button the second time, or vice versa.
ie he only has money to push a button one time, then he's not going to get what he wants, because one button gets fertilizer or a rat, but not both.
the domain of the function is a,b,c.
the range of the function is fertilizer,rat.
a,b,c are your possible inputs that yield an output.
fertilizer, rat are your possible outputs from the set of possible inputs.
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