Imagine that the price of a good is given as $5$/unit. Mathematically, if we are to compute how much we can buy with 1\$, this would just be 1\$/5\$ per unit=0.2 units. However, this computation relies on ``linearity''. In other words, we can express this relationship as: $$ Price=5\times Quantity $$ However, it could very easily be that the first dollar buys you 0.9 units, and the last 0.1 unit takes 4 dollars to purchase. Where is the linearity assumption made salient in the price? Is it assumed?
2026-04-07 21:09:12.1775596152
Fractions and linearity
30 Views Asked by Bumbble Comm https://math.techqa.club/user/bumbble-comm/detail At
1
In a lot of day-to-day situations you'd buy a whole number of units of something so there is no problem.
In other cases it may well be that the first dollar buys 0.9 units and the last 0.1 units cost 4 dollars however we would probably specify that if it were the case. If the first 900 grams only costed 1 dollar and the other 100 grams cost 4 dollars then a lot of people would only buy 900 grams, which wouldn't be convenient for most store owners
In other situations I'd say it's assumed to be linear. If you were, for example, buying vegetables at 5 dollars/kg then the linearity is assumed I'd say.
This assumption is not always true though. Sales often have a 'buy 3 pay for 2' kind of deal, which would be nonlinear.