Question

The graph below plots a function f(x):

graph of line segment going through ordered pairs 0,150 and 3, 0

If x represents time, the average rate of change of the function f(x) in the first three seconds is ___.

Answer 1

Do you know how to calculate the average?

Answer 2

There's a general rule to do that (calculate the average)
Average= Y2-Y1/X2-X1
And the ordered pairs we have are the first three seconds so pick only 2 ordered pairs that should be between 1 and 3 seconds therefore
The ordered pairs are (1,100) (2,50)
Now apply the rule above to those ordered pairs
Average=Y2-Y1/X2-X1
Average=50-100/2-1
Average= -50/1
Therefore the average is -50.
Hope that helps. :)