Interpreting slope and Intercepts
The Bath Tub
Billy Bob has an ancient bathtub that drains slower than the dickens. He filled up his
tub and then let the water drain out to see how long it would take to drain. The graph
below represents the number of gallons of water remaining in the tub and the time in
minutes.
20
(18
16
14
3
12
10
8
6
s
2
-2
8
10 10 12 13 14 15
minutes
-s
-6
-8
Use the graph to answer the questions below.
1) How are
many gallons of water in 4 Billy Bob's tub after 6 minutes? 12 gallons
2) What is the slope of the line ?
3) What do the numbers in the slope represent in the context of the problem?
The water being drained
4) What is the x-intercept? 1 200 , 15)
5) What do the values (x, y) of the x-intercept mean in the context of the problem?
how much minutes it takes for there to be more water
6) What is the y-intercept? (20 / 0 )
7) What do the values (x, y) of the y-intercept mean in the context of the problem?
how much galloons of water were in the bath tub.
