Question

A chess competition has eliminations each round. The table below shows the number of players in each of the first 5 rounds of the tournament:

Round (x) 1 2 3 4 5
Players f(x) 256 128 64 32 16


Compute the average rate of change of f(x) from x = 1 to x = 5 and identify the meaning of that rate.
−60; on average, there was a loss of 60 each round
−240; on average, there was a loss of 240 each round
4; there were 4 rounds between rounds 1 and 5
240; there were 240 fewer players between rounds 1 and 5

Answer 1

−60; on average, there was a loss of 60 each round

Explanation:

Answer 2

The average rate of change of f(x) from x =1 to x = 5 is
(16 - 256) / (5 -1) = -60
This means that on average, there was a loss of 60 each round

So, the answer is the first option.