Suppose you work as a clerk at a local retail store earning $6 per hour. The amount of your weekly paycheck (beofre taxes are taken out) could be written F (x) = 6x.

1. what is the independent variable in this function and what does it represent?

2. what does the dependent variable represent?

3. what is a reasonable domain for this function? why?

The given function above is written in this explanation,

F (x) = 6x

1. The independent variable of the function is x. This x represent the number of hours you have worked for the local retail store in a week.

2. The dependent variable in this function is F (x) or we can simply say "y". This variable is the answer that we obtain if we multiply the number of hours that you worked to the hourly pay. Thus, this is the weekly wage.

3. The domain of the function is the limits of the values of x to which the answer is still reasonable.

Lower Limit: This limit exists because you may not have worked at all in the retail store for the entire week. Hence, this is zero.

Upper Limit: We calculate for the maximum number of hours in a week,

= (1 week) (7 days/1 week) (24 hours/1 day) = 168 hours

Hence, the domain of the function is {xix is a positive real number and x ≤ 168).