A doctor is studying heights of newborn babies. The doctor uses 20 inches as a reference point. Babies in the study receive a score to show how close they are to 20 inches. A baby that is 21 inches long receives a score of +1. A baby that is 16 inches long receives a score of -4. NOTE: For your answer to be counted correctly, first enter + or - and then the number. (1 point) A baby that is 18 inches long receives a score of .

Answer 1

To calculate the score for a baby that is 18 inches long, we can see how far this measurement is from the 20-inch reference point.

The difference between 18 inches and 20 inches is: 20 - 18 = 2 inches

This means that the baby is 2 inches shorter than the reference point. Since scores decrease for lengths below 20 inches, we will need to assign a negative score.

From the previous examples, it appears that for each inch below 20 inches, the score decreases by a certain number. In the case of a baby at 16 inches, the score is -4, which means there is a decrease of 2 points for each inch below 20 inches (since the baby is 4 inches shorter, translating to -4).

Given that 18 inches is 2 inches shorter than 20 inches, we can calculate the score as follows:

• Score for 16 inches = -4 (which is 4 points for being 4 inches shorter)
• Since 18 inches is 2 inches shorter than 20 inches:
• Score for 18 inches = -4 + 2 = -2.

Thus, the baby that is 18 inches long receives a score of -2.

The final answer is: -2