Question

A hiker leaves camp at 6 A.M. to begin his descent from an elevation of 3,200 feet. He descends at the rate of 800 feet per hour. Suppose you are writing a function in slope intercept form, f(x) = mx + b, to represent this situation. Which choice is the value of b?

A) 4
B) 6
C) 800
D) 3,200

Answer 1

b will be 3,200 since it is the starting elevation.
Always, b is the number when x is 0. Here, x is the number of hours he descends from. So, at 0 hours, meaning when he starts descending, his elevation is b..