Solve the following word problem. 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 meters + (-1.5 meters * t) = -37.8 meters

To simplify the equation, we can add 10.8 meters to both sides:

-1.5 meters * t = -37.8 meters + 10.8 meters

-1.5 meters * t = -27 meters

Now, we can solve for t by dividing both sides of the equation by -1.5 meters:

t = (-27 meters) / (-1.5 meters)

t = 18

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

This means that after 18 minutes, the fish will have descended from its initial depth of -10.8 meters to a depth of -37.8 meters.