the cost of a long - distance phone call, in ...

the cost of a long - distance phone call, in cents, can be modeled by the ceiling function whose graph is shown. how much does it cost to talk for 3.1 minutes? 2 cents 3 cents 4 cents 5 cents

Answer

# Answer: 4 cents # Explanation: ## Step1: Locate the talk time on the x-axis. The given talk time is 3.1 minutes. Find 3.1 on the horizontal axis labeled "Talk Time (minutes)". ## Step2: Identify the relevant interval on the graph. The value 3.1 falls within the interval $3 < \text{Talk Time} \le 4$. ## Step3: Determine the cost for this interval. Look at the graph segment corresponding to the interval $(3, 4]$. This segment is a horizontal line. ## Step4: Read the cost from the y-axis. The horizontal line segment for the interval $(3, 4]$ is at the level $y = 4$ on the vertical axis labeled "Cost (cents)". Therefore, the cost for 3.1 minutes is 4 cents.