201,926 views
45 votes
45 votes
I need to write 3 questions that you would ask to answer the problem.A steel beam can be cut to different lengths for a project. Assuming the weight of a steel beam is proportional to its length, what information would you need to know to write an equation that represents this relationship?

User Arthur Silva
by
2.6k points

1 Answer

19 votes
19 votes

Two quantities x and y are proportional if they are related by:


y=a\cdot x

Where a is known as the proportionality factor. In this case the quantities related are the length and the weight of a steal beam so the first two question would be:

- What's the length of the beam?

- What's its weight?

Then it is also important to know the proportionality factor so knowing that the length and the weight are proportionally related I would ask:

- What's the proportionality factor?

User DMrFrost
by
3.0k points