SOLUTION: I hope someone can help me out with this. For the problems I am working on I have been trying to get the right set up for this equation. This is what I am working on:2. Biologists

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Question 178574: I hope someone can help me out with this. For the problems I am working on I have been trying to get the right set up for this equation. This is what I am working on:2. Biologists want to set up a station to test alligators in the lake for West Nile Virus. Suppose that the costs for such a station are $2,500 for setup costs and $3.00 to administer each test.
For part a I had to write an expression that gives the total cost to test x animals.
a)c=mx+b
c=3.00x+2500
Part b I to find the average cost per animal by dividing total costs by number of animals. Write the expression that gives the average cost per animal.
This is what I have so far for this. I am missing something and need to see where I am going wrong.
a)c=mx+b
c=3.00x+2500/x

I just need to know if I am writing the expressions correctly or if I need to do the whole expression to get the answer. Any help anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Found 2 solutions by jim_thompson5910, josmiceli:
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Note: an expression does NOT have an equals sign

a) You have the right equation, but they want an expression (ie they do NOT want an equals sign)

So the expression is 3x+2500

b)

Since the average cost can be found "by dividing total costs by number of animals", this means that the average cost is simply:

So the expression that gives the average cost per animal is

So it looks like you're on the right track, but forgot that they wanted expressions as answers.

Answer by josmiceli(19441) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
a)
(1)
(2)
The average cost per animal would be
It is possible to get rid of the in this expression:
(2)

Then, going back to

answer
If there were animals,
(2)

dollars per animal
This should equal

OK