Associate Level Material

Appendix F Ticket Sales

Living in or near a metropolitan area has some advantages. Entertainment opportunities are almost endless in a major city. Events occur almost every night, from sporting events to the symphony. Tickets to these events are not available long and can often be modeled by quadratic equations.

Application Practice
Answer the following questions. Use Equation Editor to write mathematical expressions and equations. First, save this file to your hard drive by selecting Save As from the File menu. Click the white space below each question to maintain proper formatting. 1. Suppose you are an event coordinator for a large performance theater. One of the hottest new Broadway musicals has started to tour and your city is the first stop on the tour. You need to supply information about projected ticket sales to the box office manager. The box office manager uses this information to anticipate staffing needs until the tickets sell out. You provide the manager with a quadratic equation that models the expected number of ticket sales for each day x. ( x = 1 is the day tickets go on sale).

Tickets = -0.2x 2 + 12x + 11

a. Does the graph of this equation open up or down? How did you determine this?

The graph opens down due to the coefficient being negative of the term x^2 b. Describe what happens to the tickets sales as time passes. The sales will increase, reach a peak, and then decrease. Meaning the number of ticket sales will go down to zero c. Use the quadratic equation to determine the last day that tickets will be sold. Note. Write your answer in terms of the number of days after ticket sales begin. Set the equation to zero; 0=-0.2x^2 + 12x + 11 Multiply by -5: x^2 - 60x - 55 = 0 Quadratic formula: x = (-b +/- sqrt (b^2 - 4ac))/(2a) x = (60 +/- sqrt (60^2 - 4*-55))/2 x = 60.903 or -0.903 The negative solution doesn't make sense therefore: x = 60.903 days or about 61 days, or 60 days after x = 1 or the first day The last day with sales will be around day 60.

d. Will tickets peak or be at a low during the middle of the sale? How do you know?

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Ticket sales will peak in the middle since the graph opens down. The vertex will be at the at the maximum of the function e. After how many days will the peak or low occur? -b/2a -12/(2*-0.2) x = 30 days or 29 days after x = 1 or the first day f. How many tickets will be sold on the day when the peak or low occurs? Plug in x = 30 into the equation: -0.2*30^2 + 12*30 + 11 .2*900+12*30+11= -180+12*30+11= -180+360+11= = 191 tickets Sold during the peak g. What is the point of the vertex? How does this number relate to your answers in parts e. and f? The vertex is at points (30,191) The x coordinate is at the day when the most tickets were sold. The y coordinate is the number of tickets sold that day. h. How many solutions are there to the equation 0.2 x 2 + 12 x + 11 = 0 ? How do you know? 2 because it is a quadratic i. What do the solutions represent? Is there a solution that does not make sense? If so, in what ways does the solution not make sense? The two days when ticket sales are zero. Is there a solution that does not make sense? Yes: x = -0.90 If so, in what ways does the solution not make sense? -0.90 is one day before sales began.

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