Question

a rocket burns up at the rate of 3 tons/min after falling out of orbit into the atmosphere. if the rocket weighed 5100 tons befor rentry, express its weight w as a function of the time T, in minutes, or reentry

Answer 1

At T = 0 minutes, the rocket weighed 5100. So w(0) = 5100.
At T = 1 minutes, the rocket weighed 5097. So w(1) = 5097.
At T = 2 minutes, the rocket weighed 5094.So w(2) = 5094.


What would it weigh at T = 10 minutes?
What would it weight at T = 100 minutes?

What about a random time T?
The function w(T) gives you the weight at T minutes, for any time T.
If you can answer the two questions above, you'll see how to express w(T) as a function of T.