Question

A producer has fixed expenses of $980 to put on a 3-day production of a play. Each ticket to the play will be sold for $5.00. The line shows the net profit or loss of the producer based on selling x tickets. What is the minimum number of tickets the producer must sell over the 3-day period in order to earn a profit?

Answer 1

196 tickets

Explanation:

The total expenses to put on a 3-day production of a play is $980. Each ticket to go and watch the play is going to be sold for $5. The producer sells x number of tickets, x number of tickets would cost 5x. Therefore to find the number of tickets the producer must sell so as to make a profit the money generated from selling the tickets must be more than the cost of production. Therefore we use the formula:

5x ≥ 980

Dividing through by 5:

x ≥ 980

x ≥ 980/5

x ≥ 196

Therefore the producer must sell at least 196 tickets so as to make a profit