Question

Germaine measured the height of a plant, H, in centimeters (cm) as a function of days, d, since he planted it in his yard. The following table shows his data. d 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 H(d) 8.2 9.6 11.0 12.4 13.8 15.2 16.6 What is the rate of change of the function?

Answer 1

The formula for determining the rate of a function is expressed as

rate = (y2 - y1)/(x2 - x1)

In this scenario,

the values of d are the x values and the values of H(d) are the y values. Looking at the table,

When x1 = 0, y1 = 8.2

when x2 = 2, y2 = 9.6

By substituting these values into the formula,

rate of change = (9.6 - 8.2)/(2 - 0)

rate of change = 1.4/2

rate of change = 0.7