The water bill
Author : Inmaculada Illán
In Spain , due to the drought , city council fixes different prices depending on your consumption . The table above shows the fees
The blue part means the following : If your consumption is less or equal to 35m 3 then you pay 0.3128 €/ m 3 , but if your consumption is a number between 35 and 50 then you pay 0.3128 €/ m 3 for the 35 m 3 first and 0.8462 €/ m 3 for the rest . Finally if your consumption is bigger than 50 then then you pay 0.3128 €/ m 3 for the 35 m 3 first and 0.8462 €/ m 3 for 15 m 3 and the rest is paid at 1.4462 €/ m 3
Calculate : a ) How much do you have to pay if you don ’ t consume water this quarter ?
b ) How much do you have to pay if your consumption is 23 m 3 ?
c ) How much do you have to pay if your consumption is 40 m 3 .?
d ) How much do you have to pay if your consumption is 53 m 3 .?
e ) I paid € 59.94 last quarter , how many m 3 did I consume ?
f ) Find out a piecewise function that reflects this situation
Related Topics and Concepts : Piecewise functions , percentages Real Life Context : Price policy , economy