Solving Supply & Demand Equations - Get the Price You Need!

[GangsterWaffle]

Hi,

I'm lost when it comes to doing an equation for supply and demand problems.

If I have p=D(q)=24-1.25(q) where p is the price and q the demand, I don't understand how I get the price based on demand. So, for example, if the demand(q) is 200 balloons, I would think it's:

p=24-1.25(200)

But that would mean 24-250 or -226. So, the price for a demand of 200 balloons would be -226? I'm clearly not understanding something but I don't know what.

Thanks for any help.

 

[I like Serena]

Hi,

I'm lost when it comes to doing an equation for supply and demand problems.

If I have p=D(q)=24-1.25(q) where p is the price and q the demand, I don't understand how I get the price based on demand. So, for example, if the demand(q) is 200 balloons, I would think it's:

p=24-1.25(200)

But that would mean 24-250 or -226. So, the price for a demand of 200 balloons would be -226? I'm clearly not understanding something but I don't know what.

Thanks for any help.

Hi adamappleby! Welcome to MHB! :)

The issue will be that such an equation is only an approximation.
What it appears to say, is that if you order more balloons, you can get them at a discount.
The assumption would be that it is not feasible to buy so many balloons that the equation would give a negative price.

Furthermore, I suspect that those numbers will probably be thousands or millions of balloons.
So if you buy for instance 2 million balloons, you can get them at a price of, say, 21.5 thousand dollars.