Question

Finding Initial Number of Bags to Fill
A 2-column table with 4 rows. Column 1 is labeled Time (minutes), x with entries 4, 5, 6, 7. Column 2 is labeled Bags Remaining, y with entries 36, 32, 28, 24.

Razi is filling bags with party favors for his birthday party. The table to the right shows the number of bags he still needs to fill after 4, 5, 6, and 7 minutes. If he is working at a constant rate, what was the initial number of party favor bags Razi had to fill?
36
48
52
56

Answer 1

As the table shows, each minute the number remaining decreases by 4 (36 → 32 → 28 → 24). So Razi fills 4 bags per minute. At t = 4 minutes there were 36 remaining, so at t = 0 there were 36 + 4·4 = 52 bags initially. Answer: 52.