Advanced Math/Functions

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Expert: - 1/30/2009


Question
I'm having difficulty helping/answering my daughter with this math question.  Any light you can shed is greatly appreciated.  

Suppose that y=f(t) is the distance in miles traveled in t hours by a car moving at 50 mph.  

a.  Give a table of values for the function f(t)
(the answer I came up with for this question is:
x=1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and y=50,100,150,200,250,300 respectively and it's written in Table Form)

b. Give a formula for the function f(t).
c. Draw the graph of the function f(t).  Label the axes and include a scale.

I didn't want to move on to b & c not knowing whetehr or not the answer I got for a is correct.  (and to be honest, even if it is, I don't quite recall how to get the answers for b and c as it was MANY years ago when I learned this.  

I appreciate your time.  

Answer
a. Yes, don't worry - you still remember it well.

b. The answer to b is what the equation that fits the data.
AFter looking at it, you can see that it costs %50 each, so the
equation is
f(x) = 50x.

c. I'll assume you have graph paper with boxes.
To draw the graph, label the x axis with integers per box and
label the y axis at 50 units per box.

Label some where on the lower left the origin where x=0 and y=0.
For the first point, x is 1 and y is 50.  Note that there are 50
units per square, so 50/50=1, so the point is at (1,1).

When x is 2, y is 100.  Again, note 50 units per square in the y direction is 100/50 = 2 boxes.  So our second point is at (2,2).

The rest of the points are at (3,3), (4,4), (5,5), and (6,6).

Note that it is much easier to say there there are 50 units per
square in the y direction so that way you only need six squares
in that direction.

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Scott A Wilson

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I can answer any question in general math, arithetic, discret math, algebra, box problems, geometry, filling a tank with water, trigonometry, pre-calculus, linear algebra, complex mathematics, probability, statistics, and most of anything else that relates to math. I can even tell you it takes me over 2,000 steps to go a mile, but is that relevant?

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Experience in the area; I have tutored people in the above areas of mathematics for almost two years in AllExperts.com. I have tutored people here and there in mathematics since before I received a BS degree almost 25 years ago. In just two more years, I received an MS degree as well, but more on that later. I tutored at OSU in the math center for all six years I was there. Most students offering assistance were juniors, seniors, or graduate students. I was allowed to tutor as a freshman. I tutored at Mathnasium for well over a year. I worked at The Boeing Company for over 5 years. I received an MS degreee in Mathematics from Oregon State Univeristy. The classes I took were over 100 hours of upper division credits in mathematical courses such as calculus, statistics, probabilty, linear algrebra, powers, linear regression, matrices, and more. I graduated with honors in both my BS and MS degrees. Past/Present Clients: College Students at Oregon State University, various math people since college, over 7,500 people on the PC from the US and rest the world.

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Master of Science at OSU with high honors in mathematics. Bachelor of Science at OSU with high honors in mathematical sciences. This degree involved mathematics, statistics, and computer science. I also took sophmore level physics and chemistry while I was attending college. On the side I took raquetball, but that's still not relevant.

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I earned high honors in both my BS degree and MS degree from Oregon State. I was in near the top in most of my classes. In several classes in mathematics, I was first. In a class of over 100 students, I was always one of the first ones to complete the test. I graduated with well over 50 credits in upper division mathematics.

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