After graduating from dental school two years ago, Dr. Lauren Farish purchased the dental practice of a long-time dentist who was retiring. In January of this year she had to replace the outdated autoclave equipment she inherited from the previous dentist. Now as she is preparing her budget for next year, she is concerned about understanding how her cost for sterilizing her dental instruments has changed. She has gathered the following information from her records:

Required
a. What is the variable cost of sterilizing an instrument using the new equipment?
b. What is the fixed cost of the autoclave equipment?
c. What is the cost formula that Dr. Farish should use for estimating autoclave sterilization costs for next year's budget?
d. If Dr. Farish estimates she will use 1,150 instruments next month, what cost should she include in her budget for instrumentsterilization?

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Month Number of Instruments Used Total Autoclave Cost 600 500 700 900 800 1,000 1,200 1,100 $ 7,400 6,500 7,000 9,000 7,600 8,500 10,000 9,800 Januany February March May June July August