Question 476925: THE COST, IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, TO REMOVE X % OF THE POLLUTANT
WHAT IS THE COST TO REMOVE 99% OF THE POLLUTANT
C = 6000
_____
200-2x
Answer by Theo(13342)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! the cost to remove x% of the pollutant is given by the equation:
c = 
if i understand this equation correctly, then the cost to remove 0% of the pollutant is equal to  = 30 million dollars.
that's the fixed cost for doing nothing except setting up the necessary infrastructure in order to be able to remove the pollutant, but not actually removing any pollutant.
if i want to remove 100% of the pollution, then the cost will be  =  which is undefined, so i could never remove 100% of the pollution.
if i want to remove 99% of the pollution, then the cost will be  which equals 3000 million dollars which is equivalent to 3 billion dollars.
based on the equation, and the fact that you are talking about x%, i believe that's the way the equation would be use.
i thought of converting % to rate by dividing it by 100, but i don't think that's proper in this case.
if i did that, then 99% would be equal to .99 and the cost would be  =  = 30.2999697 million.
somehow that doesn't look right.
too much fixed cost and not enough variable cost.
i would go with the original assumption.
with that assumption, the answer would be 3 billion dollars.
a graph of your equation would look like this:
the horizontal line is at 3000 million dollars which is right around the 99% point.
there's an asymptote at x = 100 because the value of y is undefined there.
looks like the cost is relatively small until you get to 90% or so.
the following graph might show those smaller numbers clearer.
the following graph shows that the cost at 90% is equal to 300 million.
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