Application Practice

Answer the following questions. Use Equation Editor to write mathematical expressions and equations. First, save this file to your hard drive by selecting Save As from the File menu. Click the white space below each question to maintain proper formatting.  Please use a different color for your text, if possible.  All problems that say explain or describe, you must explain or describe, in words.  Please show necessary work on all parts.

1.   Suppose you are an event coordinator for a large performance theater. One of the hottest new Broadway musicals has started to tour and your city is the first stop on the tour. You need to supply information about projected ticket sales to the box office manager. The box office manager uses this information to anticipate staffing needs until the tickets sell out. You provide the manager with a quadratic equation that models the expected number of ticket sales for each day x. ( is the day tickets go on sale).  

            a. Does the graph of this equation open up or down? Explain how you determine this.

b. Describe what happens to the tickets sales as time passes.

c. Use the quadratic equation to determine the last day that tickets will be sold.  Show work!

Note. Write your answer in terms of the number of days after ticket sales begin.

d. Will tickets peak or be at a low during the middle of the sale? Explain how you know.

e. After how many days will the peak or low occur?  Show work!

f. How many tickets will be sold on the day when the peak or low occurs? Show work!

g. What is the point of the vertex? How does this number relate to your answers in parts e. and f?  Explain.

h. How many solutions are there to the equation? Explain how you know.

i. What do the solutions represent? Is there a solution that does not make sense? If so, in what ways does the solution not make sense? Explain.