Problem Set One Name _____________________
Chapter 1
3. Residents of your city are charged a fixed weekly fee of $6 for garbage collection. They are
allowed to put out as many cans as they wish. The average household disposes of three cans of
garbage per week under this plan. Now suppose that your city changes to a “tag” system. Each
can of refuse to be collected must have a tag affixed to it. The tags cost $2 each and are not
reusable. What effect do you think the introduction of the tag system will have on the total
quantity of garbage collected in your city? Explain briefly.
6. Suppose that in the last few seconds you devoted to question 1 on your physics exam, you
earned 4 extra points, while in the last few seconds you devoted to question 2 you earned 10
extra points. You earned a total of 48 and 12 points, respectively, on the two question, an the
total time you spent on each was the same. If you could take the exam again, how – if at all –
should you reallocate your time between the questions?
9. For each long-distance call anywhere in the continental United States, a new phone service
will charge users 30 cents per minute for the first 2 minutes and 2 cents per minute for additional
minutes in each call. Tom’s current phone service charges 10 cents per minute for all calls, and
his calls are never shorter than 7 minutes. If Tom’s dorm switches to the new phone service, what
will happen to the average length of his calls?
