190Tutoral1Answer

Question 4

Due Friday July 28th.

(Mindscape 11, Chapter 1 of the textbook). Three strangers, Bob, Mary, and Ivan, meet at a taxi stand and decide to share a cab to cut down on the cost. Each has a different destination, but all the destinations are on the highway leading from the airport, so no circuitous driving is required. Bob’s destination is 10 kilometres away, Mary’s is 20 kilometres, and Ivan’s is 30 kilometres. The taxi costs $1.50 per kilometre, regardless of the number of passengers. How much should each person pay? (Caution: there is more than one way of looking at this situation. A good place to start would be to discuss what would be a fair way to divide the costs.)

Answer

Our group decided it would be fair to split the cost of the journey among the passengers still traveling.

The journey was split into three 10km sections. The cost of the first 10km was $15. This we divided up between Bob, Mary and Ivan equally.

For this section:

Bob       $5
Mary      $5
Ivan      $5

The cost for the second 10k of the journey is split between the remaining passengers, Mary and Ivan.

For this section:

Bob       $5       $0
Mary      $5       $7.50
Ivan      $5       $7.50

Ivan was the only remaining passenger for the final 10km. As such the cost for this section of the journey was to be covered entirely by himself.

Final Cost:

Bob       $5       $0          $0
Mary      $5       $7.50       $0
Ivan      $5       $7.50       $15

Thus for the journey, Bob pays a total of $5. Mary pays a total of $12.50, and Ivan pays a total of $27.50.