What is the horizontal asymptote, and what does it mean? The equation of the horizontal asymptote is y = 12.5, which is the time needed to answer 0 questions. The equation of the horizontal asymptote is y = 10, which means that the optimal number of representatives is 10, since it takes 4 minutes to answer a question. The equation of the horizontal asymptote is y = 0, which means that as the number of representatives answering questions increases, the time it takes to answer a question approaches 0 minutes. The equation of the horizontal asymptote is y = 3, which means that as the number of representatives answering questions increases, the time that it takes to answer a question approaches 3 minutes