Question

Kendall spent a week at the beach and recorded the number of shells she found each day.
Shells Kendall found
Day Number of shells
Sunday 9
Monday 5
Tuesday 0
Wednesday 8
Thursday 5
According to the table, what was the rate of change between Sunday and Thursday?
shells per day

Answer 1

To find the rate of change between Sunday and Thursday, we first need to determine the change in the number of shells found from Sunday to Thursday and then divide that by the number of days between those two days.

From the table, we have:

- Number of shells found on Sunday = 9
- Number of shells found on Thursday = 5

Now, we calculate the change in the number of shells:

\[
\text{Change in shells} = \text{Shells on Thursday} - \text{Shells on Sunday} = 5 - 9 = -4
\]

Next, we find the number of days between Sunday and Thursday. There are 4 days between these two days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday).

Now, we can calculate the rate of change:

\[
\text{Rate of change} = \frac{\text{Change in shells}}{\text{Number of days}} = \frac{-4}{4} = -1
\]

Thus, the rate of change between Sunday and Thursday is **-1 shell per day**.