A fish is swimming at −10.8 meters, or 10.8 meters below sea level. Every 2 minutes it descends another 1.5 meters. How long will it take for the fish to reach a depth of −37.8 meters? Show your work and write a sentence to explain what your answer means.

Answer 1

To find out how long it will take for the fish to reach a depth of -37.8 meters, we can set up an equation:

-10.8 + 1.5x = -37.8

Where x represents the number of 2-minute intervals.

To solve for x, we need to isolate it on one side of the equation. First, we can subtract -10.8 from both sides:

1.5x = -37.8 - (-10.8)
1.5x = -37.8 + 10.8
1.5x = -27

Next, we divide both sides by 1.5 to solve for x:

x = -27 / 1.5
x = -18

Therefore, it will take the fish 18 intervals of 2 minutes each to reach a depth of -37.8 meters.

This means that it will take 36 minutes for the fish to reach a depth of -37.8 meters below sea level.