Final answer:
The unit rate or average speed of a sprinter running 100 meters in 9.5 seconds, when rounded to the nearest tenth, is 10.5 meters per second.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find the unit rate of a sprinter running 100 meters in 9.5 seconds, we divide the total distance by the total time. The calculation is as follows:
Unit rate = Total distance ÷ Total time = 100 m ÷ 9.5 s
= Approximately 10.5263 m/s
When rounding to the nearest tenth, the sprinter's average speed is 10.5 m/s. It's important to note that this is an average speed because the sprinter's speed changes throughout the race, and at the start, while accelerating from a standstill, the speed is slower than the calculated average.