Final answer:
Maria's speed on the treadmill is 6 miles per hour, calculated by the slope of the graph which represents her speed as the rate of change of distance over time.
Step-by-step explanation:
Maria's speed on the treadmill is determined by the slope of the line on a graph that shows the relationship between the number of minutes spent jogging and the distance jogged. On the graph, the distance is on the y-axis and the time in minutes is on the x-axis. The slope of the line on the graph gives us Maria's speed, which is the rate of change of distance with respect to time.
To find the slope (speed), we can use two points on the line. In your description, the line goes through points (0, 0) and (45, 4.5). The slope is calculated by the rise over the run, which is the difference in distance divided by the difference in time.
Therefore, the slope (speed) is (4.5 miles - 0 miles) / (45 minutes - 0 minutes) = 4.5 miles / 45 minutes = 0.1 miles per minute, which can be converted to miles per hour by multiplying by 60 (0.1 miles/minute × 60 minutes/hour = 6 miles/hour). Therefore, Maria's speed is 6 miles per hour.