Question

Bruce pitches for his little brother's baseball team. He has observed that the number of pitches a batter hits varies and is given by the function. f(x) = x – 11, where x is the number of pitches and f(x) is the number of hits. If batters get {4, 12, 14, 27, 42} hits, how many pitches did Bruce throw?. . Select one of the options below as your answer:. . . . A. . {13, 21, 24, 26, 44}. . . . . B. . {17, 24, 27, 28, 35}. . . . . C. . {20, 27, 32, 33, 45}. . . . . D. . {15, 23, 25, 38, 53} .

Answer 1

If for each batter the number of hits is the number of pitches minus 11 (that is, 11 less than the number of pitches), then the number of pitches must be 11 more than the number of hits -- for each batter.  That's a way of stating in words what the function says as an equation. So for each batter, add 11 to his number of hits to get the number of pitches: Start with {4, 12, 14, 27, 42} hits, and you get {15, 23, 25, 38, 53} pitches.  So add the number of pitches for each batter, to get the total, and that's 154.

Answer 2

If Bruce observes that the number of pitches a batter hits varies and is given by the function f(x)=x-11, and the batters get {4, 12, 14, 27, 42}, then Bruce threw {15, 23, 25, 38, 53} pitches. We get this solution set by adding 11 to each element in the set {4, 12, 14, 27, 42}.