Although some sports experts debunk this theory, many peo- ple believe that the amount of money a baseball team spends
on payroll affects the number of wins, and thus its standing
in the league. For the 2014 Major League Baseball season,
the following linear equation can be used to describe the re-
lationship between an American League team's payroll x (in
millions of dollars) and the number of games y that team
won during the regular season.
y = 0.024x + 79.44
Round each answer to the nearest whole. (Source: Major
League Baseball)
a. According to this equation, how many games would have
been won in 2014 by a team with a payroll of $90 mil-
lion?
b. The New York Yankees had a payroll of $204 million in
2014. According to this equation, how many games should
they have won during the season?
c. According to this equation, what payroll would have
been necessary in 2014 to have won 95 games during the
season?
d. Find and interpret the slope of the equation.