You own Lettuce Turnip the Beet, Inc., a vegetarian catering company. You have been hired by a local nonprofit to provide food for an upcoming fundraising event to promote community recycling. The nonprofit expects 100 people to attend the fundraising event. You have asked one of your staff members to estimate the cost of the event using the following information from three previous catering engagements:

	Engagement 1	Engagement 2	Engagement 3
Total cost of event	$1,890	$1,785	$2,100
Cost per person	$21	$17	$15

The staff member decides to use the high low method to predict costs and estimates that with 100 people in attendance, the total estimated costs will be $4,655. You are unsure of how the staff member came up with the estimate, so you ask the staff member to explain how they calculated the total estimated costs. This is what they emailed to you:

I chose the two data points based on the highest and the lowest cost per person, which was for Engagements 1 and 3. Using the cost per person as "x" and the total cost as "y," I calculated a variable rate of $35 per person. Using the variable rate and the x and y for Engagement 1, I calculated total fixed costs of $1,155. I then multiplied 100 people by $35 per person and added $1,155 to arrive at the total expected costs for the event of $4,655.

Where did the staff member go wrong?

A.

They incorrectly defined the independent variable.

B.

They incorrectly assumed the fixed costs remained constant in total.

C.

They failed to convert the monthly fixed costs to annual fixed costs.

D.

They did not state the variable rate in its constant form.

E.

They incorrectly defined the dependent variable.