Chapter 3.3, Problem 43E

Business Suppose you are the manager of a firm. The accounting department has provided cost estimates, and the sales department sales estimates, on a new product. You must analyze the data they give you, determine what it will take to break even: and decide whether to go ahead with production of the new product. (See Example 7.)

Population Growth The population (in thousands of people) of Arizona for the years 2010 through 2016 can be approximated by the function $f\left(x\right)=84x+5540$. Similarly, the population (in thousands of people) of Massachusetts can be approximated by the function $g\left(x\right)=84x+6080$. For both of these models, let $x=10$ correspond to the year 2010. (Data from: U.S. Census Bureau.)

a. Graph both functions on the same coordinate axes for $x=10\text{to}x=16$.

b. Do the graphs intersect in this window?

c. In what year were the populations of these two states approximately the same?