Question
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7. A website decreases the price af some products by a certain percentage each day until someone buys the product. Winston is interested in buying a computer. He has R4 500 to spend, but the computer he wants is R7 200 . The price is to be decrease by \( 5 \% \) each day. How many days will it take before Winston can afford the computer?

Ask by Tyler Ayala. in South Africa
Mar 12,2025

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Tutor-Verified Answer

Answer

It will take 10 days for the computer to cost R4,500 or less.

Solution

Let the price of the computer on day \( n \) be given by \[ P(n) = 7200 \times 0.95^n. \] Winston can afford the computer when \[ P(n) \leq 4500. \] Substitute the expression for \( P(n) \): \[ 7200 \times 0.95^n \leq 4500. \] Divide both sides by \( 7200 \) (which is positive so the inequality sign stays the same): \[ 0.95^n \leq \frac{4500}{7200} = 0.625. \] Take the natural logarithm of both sides: \[ \ln(0.95^n) \leq \ln(0.625). \] By the logarithmic property, \( \ln(0.95^n) = n\ln(0.95) \), so we have: \[ n \ln(0.95) \leq \ln(0.625). \] Since \( \ln(0.95) \) is negative, dividing both sides by \( \ln(0.95) \) reverses the inequality: \[ n \geq \frac{\ln(0.625)}{\ln(0.95)}. \] Now, calculate the logarithms: \[ \ln(0.625) \approx -0.470003 \quad \text{and} \quad \ln(0.95) \approx -0.051293. \] Thus, \[ n \geq \frac{-0.470003}{-0.051293} \approx 9.165. \] Since \( n \) must be an integer and the price decreases at the end of each day, Winston must wait until the full day has passed. Therefore, it takes \( 10 \) days. The answer is: \[ \boxed{10} \]

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The Deep Dive

To find out how many days it will take before Winston can afford the computer, we can use a formula that calculates the price after each day. The price decreases by 5% daily, which means it retains 95% of its value. The price after \( n \) days can be calculated using the formula: \[ P(n) = P_0 \times (1 - r)^n \] where: - \( P_0 \) is the original price (R7,200), - \( r \) is the rate of decrease (0.05), - \( n \) is the number of days. We want to find the smallest \( n \) such that: \[ P(n) \leq 4,500 \] Plugging in the values: \[ 7200 \times (0.95)^n \leq 4500 \] Dividing both sides by 7200 gives: \[ (0.95)^n \leq \frac{4500}{7200} \] \[ (0.95)^n \leq 0.625 \] To solve for \( n \), we take the logarithm: \[ n \log(0.95) \leq \log(0.625) \] \[ n \geq \frac{\log(0.625)}{\log(0.95)} \] Calculating this gives approximately: \[ n \geq \frac{-0.2041}{-0.0223} \approx 9.15 \] Since \( n \) must be a whole number, it will take Winston 10 days before he can afford the computer, as he must wait for at least that many days for the price to drop below R4,500.

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