MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!! Someone please help me with this.

Question

anonymous · Answer

Researchers are studying the growth of a young blue whale. The graph shows the approximate weight of the whale from birth to 8 months.

Find an equation for the weight of the whale as a function of time, and describe the relationship in words.

mathmale · Answer

Ricardo:  I'd guess that most people on OpenStudy.com have other, stronger reasons for wanting to help students like yourself than for your ability to award medals.  I'd suggest you just post your question.  If you get good responses, go ahead and award medals.

Please go back and look at the graph associated with this problem.  Do your best to identify the slope and y-intercept of this graph.  Then I'll help you interpret what those two quantities signify.

anonymous · Answer

All I can really manage is that

at 2 months the whale is 10lbs
at 4 months the whale is a little over 15lbs, so maybe 16lbs
at 6 months the whale is a little over 20lbs, maybe 22lbs
and at 8 months the whale weighs 30 lbs

mathmale · Answer

Ricardo:  Good start.  With the info that you've obtained from the graph, you're now in a position to calculate the slope of the straight line.

Remember the formula for slope of a straight line?

$$m=\frac{ y _{2}-y _{1} }{x _{2}-x _{1}  }$$

If this rings a bell with you, choose any two points on the line from those you've already written and calculate the approximate slope of this line.  Don't worry about being exact.

anonymous · Answer

So if I wanted to choose (10, 2) and (25, 8)

it would look like this?


$$m = \frac{ 8 - 2 }{ 25 - 10 }  ?$$

anonymous · Answer

@mathmale

mathmale · Answer

So sorry for the delay in responding!  Your slope formula setup is just fine.  Evaluate the slope.  Then, look for the coordinates of the point where that line crosses the y axis.