agency is having problems with personal phone calls made during working hours.Each minute of a personal call costs the agency $0.50 in wasted wages.The agency hires operators to monitor calls in order to attain the optimal number of personal calls (minimize total cost of personal calls). $$\begin{array} { c c }
& \text { Total minutes af }\
\text { Numbe of } & \text { personal calls (per } \
\text { Operators } & \text { hour) } \
\hline 0 & 600 \
1 & 480 \
2 & 410 \
3 & 370 \
4 & 350 \
\hline
\end{array}$$ Based on the above information,if operators receive $25 an hour,how many operators should the agency hire?
A)0
B)1
C)2
D)3
E)4

Question

agency is having problems with personal phone calls made during working hours.Each minute of a personal call costs the agency $0.50 in wasted wages.The agency hires operators to monitor calls in order to attain the optimal number of personal calls (minimize total cost of personal calls). $$\begin{array} { c c } 
& \text { Total minutes af }\
\text { Numbe of } & \text { personal calls (per } \
\text { Operators } & \text { hour) } \
\hline 0 & 600 \
1 & 480 \
2 & 410 \
3 & 370 \
4 & 350 \
\hline
\end{array}$$ Based on the above information,if operators receive $25 an hour,how many operators should the agency hire?
A)0
B)1
C)2
D)3
E)4

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To minimize the total cost of personal phone calls, the agency needs to determine the number of operators that will result in the lowest total cost.

To do this, we need to calculate the total cost for each option and choose the one with the lowest cost.

We can start by using the information provided in the table and the fact that each minute of a personal call costs $0.50 in wasted wages.

For example, if there are 0 operators, there will be 600 personal calls per hour, which means there will be 600 minutes of personal calls per hour. The total cost of these calls will be:

600 minutes x $0.50/minute = $300/hour

We can repeat this calculation for each option and create a table:

$$\begin{array} { c c c c } 
\text { Number of } & \text { Minutes of } & \text { Cost of } & \text{ Total Cost } \
\text { Operators } & \text { Personal Calls } & \text { Personal Calls } & \text { (per hour) } \
\hline 0 & 600 & \$300 & \$0 \
1 & 480 & \$240 & \$25 \
2 & 410 & \$205 & \$50 \
3 & 370 & \$185 & \$75 \
4 & 350 & \$175 & \$100 \
\hline
\end{array}$$

Note that we included a column for the hourly cost of hiring operators. Since each operator costs $25 per hour, the total cost for each option is the cost of personal calls plus the cost of hiring operators.

Based on the table, we can see that the total cost is minimized when there are 2 operators. Therefore, the agency should hire 2 operators to monitor personal calls during working hours.

The answer is (C) 2.

Agency Is Having Problems with Personal Phone Calls Made During