The following information applies to the questions displayed below.$]$

Nation$$s Capital Fitness, Inc., operates a chain of fitness centers in the Washington, D$.$C$.,$ area. The firm$$s controller is accumulating data to be used in preparing its annual profit plan for the coming year. The cost behavior pattern of the firm$$s equipment maintenance costs must be determined. The accounting staff has suggested the use of the high$-$low method to develop an equation, in the form of Y $=$ a $+$ bX$,$ for maintenance costs. Data regarding the maintenance hours and costs for last year are as follows:

Month Hours of Maintenance

Service Maintenance

Costs

January $540$ $ $5,180$

February $4504,170$

March $2702,750$

April $5004,300$

May $3403,000$

June $4604,190$

July $3403,050$

August $4303,560$

September $4803,960$

October $3803,230$

November $3803,220$

December $3503,080$

Total $4,920$ $ $43,690$

Average $410*$ $ $3,641*$

$*$Rounded

Required:

$1.$ Using the high$-$low method of cost estimation, estimate the behavior of the maintenance costs incurred by Nation$$s Capital Fitness, Inc. Express the cost behavior pattern in equation form. $($Round coefficient of X to $2$ decimal places and other answer to the nearest whole dollar amount.$)$

$-$Monthly maintenance cost $=+$ X

$2.$ Using your answer to requirement $1,$ what is the variable component of the maintenance cost? $($Round your answer to $2$ decimal places.$)$

$-$Variable maintenance cost per hour

$3.$ Compute the predicted maintenance cost at $600$ hours of activity.

$-$Maintenance cost

$4-$a$.$ Compute the variable cost per hour and the fixed cost per hour at $610$ hours of activity. $($Round your answers to $2$ decimal places.$)$

$-$Variable cost per hour

$-$Fixed cost per hour

$4-$b$.$ Why is the fixed cost per hour possibly misleading?

multiple choice

Because it will not change as the number of hours changes.

Because it will change as the number of hours changes.