Corporation wants to find an equation to estimate some of their monthly operating costs for the operating budget for 2018. The following cost and other data were gathered for 2017:

Month	Maintenance Costs	Machine Hours	Health Insurance	Number of Employees	Shipping Costs	Units Shipped
January	$4,470	162	$8,630	71	$26,122	7,060
February	$4,414	110	$8,630	77	$30,747	8,310
March	$4,690	239	$8,630	88	$29,378	7,940
April	$4,895	308	$8,630	112	$23,717	6,410
May	$5,180	467	$8,630	90	$21,719	5,870
June	$4,725	285	$8,630	82	$34,262	9,260
July	$4,982	341	$8,630	94	$32,412	8,760
August	$4,990	365	$8,630	87	$31,080	8,400
September	$5,055	429	$8,630	98	$25,086	6,780
October	$5,282	477	$8,630	107	$26,492	7,160
November	$5,410	525	$8,630	96	$20,757	5,610
December	$4,774	281	$8,630	103	$35,890	9,700

Read the requirements.

1.	Which of the preceding costs is variable? Fixed? Mixed? Explain.
2.	Using the high-low method, determine the cost function for each cost.
3.	Combine the preceding information to get a monthly operating cost function for the Shamrock Corporation.
4.	Next month, Shamrock expects to use 500 machine hours, have 65 employees, and ship 9,600 units. Estimate the total operating cost for the month.