Question

after 30 seconds, there are 14 gallons of water left in the tub. One minute after you pull the plug, there are 9 gallons left. assume that the numbers of gallons varies linearly with the time since the plug was pulled. what are the two ordered pairs and what is the rate of change per second. please help.

Answer 1

You first must define your ordered pairs.
let my general ordered pair be (time, volume)

secondly, make sure you have the same units, e.b. seconds or minutes.

I would have:
(30,14) and (60,9)

now find the slope, and your answer would be gallons/second

let me know what you get.

Answer 2

6 gallons every second is drained?

Answer 3

nope

rate of draining = (9-14)/(60-30)
= -5/30 gallons/sec
or -1/6 gallons/sec

the negative shows the volume is decreasing or "draining"

remember, slope is (the difference in the y's)/difference in the x's

I think you had it backwards, and also ignored the negative sign

Answer 4

how many gallons of water were in the tub initially before the plug was pulled?

what would be my function equation for the line in the form of y=mx+b