A hardware store rents vacuum cleaners that customers may use for part or all of a day, up to 12 hours, before returning. The store charges a flat fee plus an hourly rate. Write a linear function f for the total rental cost of a vacuum cleaner.

Step-by-step explanation:

Let x represents the amount that the customer pays per hour

for renting the vacuum cleaner before returning it.

Let y represent the flat rate that the store charges a customer for renting the vacuum cleaner.

Let F represent thea amount that the store charges a customer for renting the vacuum cleaner for x hours.

A linear function F for the total retail cost of a vacuum cleaner would be

F(x) = x + y

If the customer rents it for n hours, the total amount becomes

F(x) = nx + y