To find the rate of change of a linear function, we need to find the slope of the line that represents the function. The slope is the ratio of the change in the vertical axis (y-axis) to the change in the horizontal axis (x-axis) between any two points on the line.
We can use the two points (0, 50) and (2, 40) from the table to find the slope of the line:
slope = (change in y) / (change in x) = (40 - 50) / (2 - 0) = -10 / 2 = -5
Therefore, the rate of change of the linear function represented by the table is -5. This means that for every increase of 1 unit in the x-value, the y-value decreases by 5 units.