A single firm or corporation is a producer, all producers in the market form and industry, and the people and consumers that an industry intends to sell its goods are the market. So supply is simply the quantity of goods that producers, that is, an industry is willing to sell at a specific price at a specific time. Next, there is a law of supply that reflects a direct relationship between price and quantity supplied. All other factors being equal, the quantity supplied of an item increases as the price of that item increases. The supply curve represents the relationship between the price of the item and the quantity supplied. The quantity supplied in a market is simply the quantity that firms are willing to produce and sell at that time. A change in quantity supplied is simply a movement from one point on the supply curve to another. In contrast, the cause of a change in supply is a change in one of the determinants of supply that shifts the curve to the left or right. These determining factors are resource prices, technology, taxes and subsidies, producer expectations, and the number of sellers. An equilibrium price is required to produce an equilibrium quantity, and a price below that amount is referred to as zero quantity supplied. No business enters into that particular business. If the price coefficient is greater than zero, as the price of the good increases, firms want to produce more of it. When the price of output rises, it becomes more attractive for firms to shift resources into producing that output. Therefore, the slope of a supply curve is the change in price divided by the change in quantity. The constant in this equation is something less (always a negative number) than zero because it strictly requires a positive... middle of paper... the amount of helium supplied has also decreased due to refinery closures and privatization taking place This is a supply driver known as “decreasing number of sellers,” which will cause helium prices to rise. As the number of sellers in this particular market decreases, our supply of helium also decreases shifting the supply curve. Furthermore, we have a change in a determinant of supply other than price, such as the cost of factor production, which is equivalent to a change in supply. This change in supply shifts the supply curve to the left because helium is becoming harder to find and the cost of natural resources has increased causing the supply of helium to decrease. Works Cited http://www.labmate-online.com/news/ chromatografia/1/parker_domnick_hunter_ltd/helium_supplies_are_diminishing_and_prices_are_rising/28930/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7yC-5IDhKM