Question

A car company is testing how well its cars handle skidding to a complete stop after hitting the brakes while going at different speeds on an asphalt road. The equation represents the car’s speed, in miles/hour, when the brakes are applied as a function of the distance, in feet, the car skids. The table of values represents the function S(D). Use the table of values to calculate the average rate of change between the given intervals. Then interpret what the average rate of change means in this context.

Answer 1

D SD= sqrt(22.5D) Average Rate of Change

47 32.52

50 33.5 0.34

56 35.50 0.33

60 36.74 0.31

62 37.35 0.305

65 38.24 0.3

In the context of this problem, the average rate of change is the rate at which the car decelerates as it skids. As the distance that the car skids increases, the rate at which the car decelerates decreases at a gradual rate.

Explanation: