Question

Explain how the graph would look for the following word problem:

“At midnight, the temperature was 60°. By 2 a.m., the temperature had dropped 18° and stayed there for four hours. Two hours later, the temperature had increased by 25°.”

Answer 1

see attached

Explanation:

You are given four time and temperature points:

(time, temperature) ∈ {(12 am, 60°), (2 am, 42°), (6 am, 42°), (8 am, 67°)}

The graph below shows these plotted, using x=0 as midnight and hours on the horizontal axis. Degrees are on the vertical axis.

Nothing in the problem statement suggests that these points should be connected with straight lines. We have added lines here, partly to show what it means that the temperature stayed the same for 4 hours, and partly to make the temperature points more visible.

A graph of the temperatures given in the problem statement would show the given points with a horizontal lines connecting the points at 2 am and 6 am. You may or may not want to add some connection between the other dots, depending on the expected use of the graph.