Let's cal x the length of the piece that Jill cut off and y the length of the piece that is left.
So, we can represent the relation between x and y using the following equation:
y = 30 - x
It means that the length of the pice that is left is 30 ft less the length of the piece that is cut off.
At the same way, we can make a graph like:
Finally, a table that represents the relation is:
x y
0 30
10 20
20 10
30 0
Answer: The representation that best portrays the situation is the equation because we can calculate the exact value of y for every value of x. For example, if Jill cut off 15.7 ft of the piece, the length of the piece that left can be calculated as:
y = 30 - 15.7 = 14.3 ft