Question

The drama department recorded how long the annual school play lasted each year.
Length of annual school play
Year Length (minutes)
2017 78
2018 77
2019 86
2020 74
2021 85
According to the table, when was the rate of change greater?

Answer 1

Compute the year-to-year changes (minutes per year):
- 2017→2018: 78 → 77, change −1 (rate −1 min/yr)
- 2018→2019: 77 → 86, change +9 (rate +9 min/yr)
- 2019→2020: 86 → 74, change −12 (rate −12 min/yr)
- 2020→2021: 74 → 85, change +11 (rate +11 min/yr)

The largest magnitude of change (greatest rate of change) was 2019→2020, when the length dropped by 12 minutes. If you mean the greatest increase, it was 2020→2021 (+11 minutes).