Question

At 2:00pm a car's speedometer reads 50mph, and at 2:10pm it reads 65mph. Use the Mean Value Theorem to find an acceleration the car must achieve.

Answer 1

ok, so do you understand the concept and how Mean Value Theorem works?

Answer 2

I know that the Mean Value Theorem states that \[\frac{ f(b) -f(a) }{ b-a }=f'(c)\]

Answer 3

yep
all it means is that the average rate of change can be approximated to a constant
so f(b) in this case is 65 mph
f(a) is 50
b is 2:10
a is 2:00
f'(c) is the rate of change parallel to the curve, so in this case: the acceleration
b-a = 10 mins = 0.166 hours
f(b) - f(a) = 15
15/0.1666 =...?

Answer 4

Ahhh the only thing I hadn't done when trying to solve it was converting the min to hours lol

Answer 5

Got it! Thanks so much!

Answer 6

coolski, props ;)