Question

Measuring the Wind Speed of a Hurricane

When measuring the wind speed of a hurricane or similar storm, meteorologists don't want to get hit by flying debris. They use a measure available to them in the comfort of their TV studio. Luckily for the meteorologists, the barometric pressure is LINEARLY related to the wind speed.
Suppose scientists compared the wind speeds and barometric pressure readings of two severe storms over the Atlantic Ocean. For one of the storms, the barometric pressure was 1,000 mb (millibars), and the maximum wind speed was 100 kmh (kilometers per hour). The second had a barometric pressure of 960 mb and maximum wind speeds of 180 kmh.
What ordered pairs are you going to use to find the Rate of Change (aka Slope)?
A) (100, 1000), (180, 960)
B) (1000, 100), (960, 180)
C) (1000, 180), (960, 100)
D) (100, 960), (180, 1000)

Answer 1

To find the Rate of Change or slope in a linear relationship between barometric pressure and wind speed, we use the barometric pressure as the x-value and the wind speed as the y-value. The correct ordered pairs are (1000, 100) and (960, 180).

Step-by-step explanation:

When finding the Rate of Change or slope given a linear relationship, we use ordered pairs where the first element represents the x-value (in this case, the barometric pressure), and the second element represents the y-value (the wind speed)

Since we are given that the barometric pressure is linearly related to the wind speed, the correct ordered pairs to use for calculating the slope would be the pressure as the independent variable (x) and the wind speed as the dependent variable (y). Therefore, the correct ordered pairs to use are (1000, 100) for the first storm and (960, 180) for the second storm.