Question

the table below gives a small companys monthly increases in sales (in thousands of dollars) for five months.
use the table to answer the questions.

month	increase in sales (thousands of dollars)
june	-131
july	-305
august	32
september	-368

(a) which month had the smallest change in sales?
○ may ○ june ○ july ○ august ○ september

(b) which month(s) had a jump in sales of more than $75,000? select all that apply.
□ may □ june □ july □ august □ september

Explanation:

Part (a)

Step1: Find absolute values

To find the smallest change, we look at the absolute values of the sales increases.

• May: $|237| = 237$
• June: $|-131| = 131$
• July: $|-305| = 305$
• August: $|32| = 32$
• September: $|-368| = 368$

Step2: Compare absolute values

Now we compare these absolute values: $32 < 131 < 237 < 305 < 368$. The smallest absolute value is 32, which corresponds to August.

A "jump in sales" means a positive increase (since negative values are decreases). We need to check which months have an increase (positive value) of more than 75 (thousand dollars, so $75,000$ is 75 in thousands).

• May: 237 (thousand dollars) which is $237,000$, and $237 > 75$.
• June: -131 (decrease, so no)
• July: -305 (decrease, so no)
• August: 32 (thousand dollars, $32,000 < 75,000$, so no)
• September: -368 (decrease, so no)

So only May has a jump in sales of more than $75,000$.

Answer:

August

Part (b)