Question

The science club is inflating a model of a hot air balloon. The graph below shows their progress. At what rate is the diameter increasing?

Answer 1

12.5 centimeters per minute

Explanation:

From the graph, the rate at which the diameter increasing would be inthe units of cm/min

The rate is basically the slope of the line. The slope (m) has formula:

`m=(y_2-y_1)/(x_2-x_1)`

Where

`(x_1,y_1)` is any point from the graph

and

`(x_2,y_2)` is another point from the graph

Let's take the origin (0,0) as the first point and (4,50) as the second point. Now lets calculate the slope:

`m=(y_2-y_1)/(x_2-x_1)\\m=(50-0)/(4-0)\\m=(50)/(4)\\m=12.5`

Thus, we can say:

The diameter of the hot air balloon is increasing at a rate of 12.5 centimeters per minute