Question

A mother gives birth to a 9 pound baby. Every 2 months, the baby gains 3 pounds if x is the age of the baby in months,then y is the weight of the baby in pounds.

Find an equation of a line in the form y=Mx+b that describes the baby’s weight

Answer 1

y=1.5x+9

Explanation:

We can first write in 9 as b because the baby already started at 9 pounds, meaning the line showing the weight will also start from 9.

The question tells us that the baby grows 3 pounds every 2 months. In the equation, x represents months. We need to convert the rate of growth into 1 month to write in as the slope.

`(3pounds)/(2 months) = (1.5 pounds)/(1 month)`

Now we know every month, the baby grows 1.5 pounds, which represents the rate of change, or M, in the equation.