# Can one Calculate Fixed and Variable Cost From TC and Quantity Alone?

I have been asked a question and believe there is a mistake in the problem.

I have been given a table of values, Quantity and corresponding Total cost. From those numbers I can easily calculate the Average total cost and marginal cost.

I am asked to find the fixed and variable cost for each quantity. The question provides no other information. Is this possible?

• @MB1992 I believe that with a little amount of mathematical notation added, this comment should be posted as an answer - after all that is all there is to it (and we do need to clear our "unanswered queue" as much as possible). – Alecos Papadopoulos Nov 23 '16 at 22:38
• Is your marginal cost constant? or do you have TC(0) in your table ? – Yann Nov 24 '16 at 11:18

Hence, if $TC(q)$ is the total cost for the given level of quantity $q$, then $FC=TC(0)$ is the fixed cost, which is a constant independent of $q$; and $VC(q)=TC(q)-FC$ is the variable cost.
For example, if $TC(q)=10+q$, then $FC=TC(0)=10$ and $VC(q)=TC(q)-FC=q$.