The administrator of Providence Hospital would like a cost formula linking the costs involved in admitting patients to the number of patients admitted during a month.The admitting departments costs and the number of patients admitted during the past six months are given in the following table.

MONTH Number of Admitting Department Patients Admitted Costs

Jan 1,825 $17,700

Feb 1,650 $14,750

Mar 1,950 $18,900

Apr 1,350 $13,100

May 1,750 $15,900

June 1,400 $13,850

Required:

a) Use the high-low method to establish the fixed and variable components of admitting costs (round it up to 2 decimal places).

b) Express the fixed and variable components of admitting costs as a cost formula in the Linear Equation form Y = a + bX.