Question

Aurora is planning to participate in an event at her school's field day that requires her to complete tasks at various stations in the fastest time possible. To prepare for the event, she is practicing and keeping track of her time to complete each station.

The x-coordinate is the station number, and the y-coordinate is the time in minutes since the start of the race that she completed the task.

(1, 2), (2, 4), (3, 8), (4, 16)

Part A: Is this data modeling a linear function or an exponential function? Explain your answer. (2 points)

Part B: Write a function to represent the data. Show your work. (4 points)

Part C: Determine the average rate of change between station 2 and station 4. Show your work. (4 points)

Answer 1

Explanation:

Part A:

This data modeling an exponential function because the y-coordinate values are increasing by multiplying the previous value by 2, which is the common ratio.

Part B:

To write a function to represent the data, we can use the formula for an exponential function: y = a(b)^x, where a is the initial value, b is the common ratio, and x is the input value (station number in this case).

Using the given data points, we can write two equations:

2 = a(b)^1

16 = a(b)^4

Dividing the second equation by the first equation, we get:

8 = (b)^3

Taking the cube root of both sides, we get:

b = 2

Substituting b = 2 in the first equation, we get:

2 = a(2)^1

2 = 2a

a = 1

Therefore, the function that represents the data is: y = 1(2)^x, or y = 2^x.

Part C:

To find the average rate of change between station 2 and station 4, we need to calculate the slope of the line passing through the points (2, 4) and (4, 16).

Using the formula for slope, we get:

slope = (y2 - y1) / (x2 - x1)

slope = (16 - 4) / (4 - 2)

slope = 6

Therefore, the average rate of change between station 2 and station 4 is 6 minutes per station.