Question

At the end of a snowstorm, Gabriella saw there was a lot of snow on her front lawn. The temperature increased, and the snow began to melt at a steady rate. Let S represent the depth of snow on Gabriella's lawn, in inches, t hours after the snow stopped falling. Determine how many hours it would take for the depth of snow to reach 7.5 inches.

a) 2 hours
b) 3 hours
c) 4 hours
d) 5 hours

Answer 1

It would take 0 hours for the depth of snow to reach 7.5 inches.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine how many hours it would take for the depth of snow to reach 7.5 inches, we need to consider the rate at which the snow is melting. The problem states that the snow is melting at a steady rate. Let's assume that the rate of melting is constant.

We can set up a proportion to solve for the time it would take for the snow depth to reach 7.5 inches. Since the rate of melting is constant, we can use the equation:

S / t = 7.5 / x

Where S is the initial depth of snow, t is the time in hours, and x is the desired depth of snow in inches. We can rearrange the equation to solve for t:

t = S * x / 7.5

Substituting S = initial depth of snow = 0 inches (since it's at the end of the snowstorm), and x = 7.5 inches, we can solve for t:

t = 0 * 7.5 / 7.5 = 0

Therefore, it would take 0 hours for the depth of snow to reach 7.5 inches. This means that the snow has already melted.