An airplane's velocity is recorded at 5-min intervals during a 1-hour period with the following results, in miles per hour: 625; 640; 570; 580; 565; 550; 570; 600; 575; 595; 600; 575; 605; Use Simpson’s Rule to estimate the distance traveled during the hour. Answer in miles (using mi for miles) to the nearest whole mile.

Question

anonymous · Answer

simpson's rule uses the idea of a bunch of rectangle's areas added up to get the distance traveled
imagine an x-y chart where x is time in minutes and y is mph. 
since we have minutes and hours, we need to pick one or the other, to keep our units the same. so lets use hours. so that means 5 minutes/60 = 0.0833hrs

now all thats left is to multiply 0.0833*625 + 0.0833*640 + ect till all the mph's have been added up.

i get: 638 miles