Given:
Amount of gas originally = 15 gallons
Amount of gas after 4 hrs = 3 gallons
x represents the time in hrs
y represents the amount of gas in gallons
The rate at which the truck is using gas can be calculated using the formula:
Substituting we have:
The rate at which the truck is using gas is -3 gallons per hr
As a linear equation of the form:
where m is the rate at which the truck is using gas and b is the amount of gas originally
Thus:
m = -3
b = 15
Hence, the linear equation that describes the amount of gas is :
Answer: y = -3x + 15