Users on Social Media
By Sarav Chouhan
situation
Let's take a look at the popularity of the two most competitive social media networks, Instagrad and Twittrit. Both of them are rapidly gaining more and more users as months progress. Instagrad and Twittrit were both founded on January 2014. Instagrad had started out with 150 users in the first two weeks and gained more users as the months passed. Twittret, however, didn’t get any users until after the first month. The question is, which one has more user accounts now and as a result, is more popular.
classification of variables
- Let x represent the number of months since the release date
- Let y represent the number of users that joined
Since Instagrad had 575 new users in one month, 575x is the constant multiple. Since Instagrad had 150 users in under a month (0 months), 150 is the constant value that gets added to the rest of the equation. Therefore, y = 575x + 150 (a partial variation).
Since Twittrit had 155 users joined in one month, the constant multiple is 155x. Since it had 0 users in under a month (0 months), there is no constant value that needs to be added to the rest of the equation. Therefore, y = 155x (a direct variation).
data (table):
equations
Total number of Instagrad users: y = 200x + 150
Total number of Twittrit users: y = 230x
graph:
(black line - Instagrad)
(blue line - Twittrit)
point of intersection
- both networks have the same number of users (1150 users) in May (5 months after the release dates)
graphic solution
200x + 150 = 230x
200x + 150 - 230x = 0
200x - 230x = -150
-30x = -150
-30x / -30 = -150 / -30
x = 5
explanation of significance
The significance of the point of intersection is to help determine the more popular network (in this case). Since Twittrit's slope in the graph above is steeper than Instagrad's slope, we can determine that it is more popular. We can also see the change in lead as the lines switch dominance. Instagrad's line had been higher when both points' y-intercept was 0. We can see how this changed as the lines met at point (5, 1150) on the graph. From there on, Twittrit's points increased which represented it becoming more popular.
summary statement
in summary, Twittrit has now become more popular than Instagrad even though it was less popular in the beginning of the year. After 5 months, in May, Twittrit gained more followers than Instagrad and continued to receive more and more as time passed!