To find the total change in the amount of water in the tank after 6 days, we need to calculate how much water decreases each day and then multiply that by the number of days.
The tank decreases by 10 gallons every 3 hours. There are 24 hours in a day, so we can calculate the number of 3-hour intervals in a day:
\[ \text{Number of 3-hour intervals per day} = \frac{24 \text{ hours}}{3 \text{ hours/interval}} = 8 \text{ intervals/day} \]
Now, we calculate the total decrease in gallons per day:
\[ \text{Decrease per day} = 10 \text{ gallons/interval} \times 8 \text{ intervals/day} = 80 \text{ gallons/day} \]
Now we can calculate the total decrease over 6 days:
\[ \text{Total decrease over 6 days} = 80 \text{ gallons/day} \times 6 \text{ days} = 480 \text{ gallons} \]
Since the amount of water in the tank is decreasing, the total change is negative:
\[ \text{Total change} = -480 \text{ gallons} \]
The correct answer is:
−480 gallons