Question

Sage belongs to a bird-watching club. Every two days, she goes out and counts the number of Black-hooded Parakeets she sees. The sightings can be approximated by the equation y = 1/2x + 3. What is the approximate rate of change for the number of parakeets seen?

3

1/2

-1/2

7/2

Answer 1

The rate of change for the number of parakeets seen is 1/2

Explanation:

The sightings can be approximated by the equation:

y = (1/2)*x + 3

Which represents a line. Any line can be writen by an equation in the following form:

y = m*x + b

Where m is the slope of the lane or it's rate of change and b is the value for "y" when "x" equals zero. Applying this knowledge to the equation of the bird sightings we can se that the sightings grows 1/2 for every one unit that x grows, therefore the rate of change is 1/2.