Question

Mrs. Kerr, an art teacher, prepares a large batch of clay for her pottery class. During class, she pulls a small lump of clay from the batch to hand out to each student. The amount of clay Mrs. Kerr has left in the batch depends on how many students she has already handed clay out to.
This situation can be modeled as a linear relationship. Use the points (12, 30) and (24, 15) to find the answer.

Complete the statement that describes the situation.
Mrs. Kerr prepares ___ pounds of clay and hands out ____________.

Answer 1

Mrs. Kerr prepares 45 pounds of clay and hands out 1.25 (or 1 1/4) pounds to each student.

(Reason: slope = (15−30)/(24−12) = −5/4 pounds per student, so intercept b = 30 − (−5/4)(12) = 45.)