Marco works at an aquarium shop. He is asked to clean two fish tanks. The clownfish tank begins with 175 gallons and empties at a rate of 15 gallons per minute. The amount of water in the red lionfish tank is represented by the equation y = 145.75 – 35.5x, where x is the number of minutes the pump has been emptying the tank.

1 answer

To find out how long it will take to clean each fish tank, we can use the formula:

Time = Amount of water / Rate of emptying

For the clownfish tank:
Initial amount of water = 175 gallons
Rate of emptying = 15 gallons per minute

Time = 175 / 15
Time = 11.67 minutes

So, it will take approximately 11.67 minutes to clean the clownfish tank.

For the red lionfish tank:
The equation representing the amount of water in the tank is:
y = 145.75 – 35.5x

We need to find out when the tank will be completely empty, in other words, when y = 0:
0 = 145.75 – 35.5x
35.5x = 145.75
x = 145.75 / 35.5
x ≈ 4.11

So, it will take approximately 4.11 minutes to clean the red lionfish tank.