A small company has purchased a microcomputer system for $7200 and plans to depreciate the value of the equipment by $1200 per year for 6 years. Let x denote the age of the equipment, in years, and y denote the value of the equipment, in hundreds of dollars.
a. Find the equation that expresses y in terms of x.
b. Find the y-intercept, b0, and slope, b1, of the linear equation in part (a).
c. Without graphing the equation in part (a), decide whether the line slopes upward, slopes downward, or is horizontal.
d. Find the value of the computer equipment after 2 years; after 5 years.
e. Obtain the graph of the equation in part (a) by plotting the points from part (d) and connecting them with a line.
f. Use the graph from part (e) to visually estimate the value of the equipment after 4 years. Then calculate that value exactly, using the equation from part (a).