Arun is driving on a long road trip. He wrote an equation to represent how many gallons of gas he has left in his tank, g, equals, 14, minus, 0, point, 5, hg=14−0.5h, where gg represents the number of gallons and hh represents time in hours. What could the number 14 represent in the equation?

Question

Answer
Multiple Choice Answers
How long it takes Arun to run out of gas.
How quickly the car uses gas, in gallons per hour.
The number of gallons of gas at time h, equals, 0h=0.
The number of gallons in the tank when the trip ends.

Answer 1

In the equation \( g = 14 - 0.5h \):

• \( g \) represents the number of gallons of gas left in the tank.
• \( h \) represents time in hours.
• The term \( -0.5h \) indicates that for each hour \( h \), the car consumes 0.5 gallons of gas.

The number 14 in this equation represents the initial amount of gas in the tank at the start of the trip. Therefore, when \( h = 0 \), the number of gallons \( g = 14 \).

Given the options, the correct answer is:

The number of gallons of gas at time \( h = 0 \).