Question

A columnist had already published 46 articles before joining a newspaper. Since then, he has published 11 more articles every month. Let m represent the number of months since joining the newspaper and a represent the total number of articles he has published. Find the value of a when m=6.

Answer 1

The columnist has published a total of 112 articles after 6 months of joining the newspaper, based on the linear function a = 11m + 46, with m representing months and a representing the total number of articles.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student's question involves a linear relationship between the number of articles published and the number of months since the columnist joined the newspaper. This can be expressed as a linear function, where a represents the total number of articles published, and m represents the number of months since joining the newspaper. The initial condition is that the columnist had published 46 articles before joining, which is the y-intercept of the function. Since then, the columnist publishes 11 more articles every month, which is the slope of the function. Therefore, the function representing the total number of articles published is a = 11m + 46.

When m=6, we substitute this value into the function to find the total number of articles published:

a = 11(6) + 46

= 66 + 46

= 112

Hence, when m=6, a=112, which means the columnist has published 112 articles in total.

Answer 2

Step-by-step explanation:

Let m represent the number of months since joining the newspaper.

Let a represent the total number of articles he has published.

The columnist had already published 46 articles before joining a newspaper. Since then, he has published 11 more articles every month. This means that in m months, the total number of articles he would have published is

a = 46 + 11m

Therefore, when m = 6,

a = 46 + 11 × 6 = 46 + 66

a = 112