A music competition on television had five elimination rounds. After each elimination, only half of the contestants were sent to the next round. The table below shows the number of contestants in each round of the competition:

Question

anonymous · Answer

x	1	2	3	4	5
f(x)	64	32	16	8	4


Compute the average rate of change of f(x) from x = 3 to x = 5 and describe what it represents.

anonymous · Answer

(A) -6 contestants per round, and it represents the number of contestants who will reach the final round 
(B) -28 contestants per round, and it represents the number of contestants who will reach the final round 
(C) -6 contestants per round, and it represents the average rate at which the number of contestants decreased from the third round to the fifth round 
(D) -28 contestants per round, and it represents the average rate at which the number of contestants decreased from the third round to the fifth round

kamibug · Answer

Average rate of change means slope. Take the coordinates (3, 16) and (5, 4) and plug them into the slope formula. :)
$$m = \frac{ y_2 - y_1 }{ x_2 - x_1 }$$
y_2 is 4
y_1 is 16
x_2 is 5
x_1 is 3

anonymous · Answer

So slope is -6. That eliminates B and D.

anonymous · Answer

Is the answer C?

kamibug · Answer

Correct. :) No we just need to describe what the slope represents. Which do you think it is?

anonymous · Answer

It is A, right?

kamibug · Answer

It's C. Remember they asked for the average RATE between the THIRD and FIFTH rounds! ^.^

anonymous · Answer

Oh right! I said A the second time bcuz you answered no; I thought you answered no to the answer's being C. -_- lol

kamibug · Answer

Oh, crap! I didn't see your post when you asked if it was C lol I need to refresh my page so much -.-

anonymous · Answer

lmaooo that's alright; but thanks for helping me out! :)

kamibug · Answer

Sure :)

anonymous · Answer

help? @KamiBug