Akmal Madmarov Origins High School

Class: 902 - Coney Island 03/22/14

Math Scholars Challenge # 4B

I chose Scholars challenge #4 B it was about the waterboy, and
had to find the how many gallons of water he needs. So the waterboy
keeps track of the amount of water players drink all the practice time.
Waterboy notices that when the temperature is 90F the player will drink
about 220 gallons of water, and when the temperature is 76F the players
will drink about 178 gallons of water.
So the first question was that I had to model this linear function with
an equation. To do that, I made up a table, so first I drew the x values and
y values. I did the table function because it makes everything easier, or
makes easier to sort the numbers. The x values are the temperatures and
the y values are the gallons of water The x values were increasing by 2,
and were 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86, 88, 90. Then for the y value I wanted to
add to the 178 until 220 but in the table there were 8 spots left. Then, I
guessed and got 6 because when I add 178 8 times, I got 220 which was
the final gallon of water. So, then I saw that the x values are going up by 2
and the y values are going up by 6. To find the equation I had to do
y=mx+b, thats why I created the table first, because I had to find the x
values and y values. Now, I plugged in the x and y into the equation, so I
used the second value in x value and in y
The equation became 184=m(78)+b. However, we dont have m
value, to find the m value I had to plug in the ROC(rate of change). To
find the ROC I had to divide the change over the y and over the x, the
equation was ROC=change in y/the change in x. The equation became
ROC=6/2, then divided and got 3. Now, now we have m value which is
3. This time we have to find the b value, the y-intercept, to find it we
have to solve out the equation. So, the equation is 184=3(78)+b then we
have to do distributive property, and get 184=234+b as you can see we
have this equation, then we have to find the b or y-intercept value. To do
that, we have to subtract 234 on both sides. After that, we will get b=-50,
so this is the y-intercept. Now, we have the answers for the first question.
The second question says what is rate of change, and what does it
mean in the context of this problem? The rate of change is the speed of
the variable that changes over the specific time or it is the change in the
value\over the x value. In the context in this problem means that when the
temperature changes by some degree than the consumer will have specific
gallons of water. To find the rate of change you have to divide the change
in the input over the output value.
The equation or the problem is linear, because the ROC is constant.
Each time the input goes up by 2, and the output goes up by 6. The ROC is
3 and it is constant, that is why the equation or the problem is linear. To
find the y-intercept, you have to find the b value, but we have already
found the value, and it was -50 for our equation. So this means, the y-
intercept will be -50.

X Y
76 178
78 184
80 190
82 196
84 202
86 208
88 214
90 220




The bonus question was "What is the range of usefulness for your
equation? That is, for what values of x does your equation actually model
real life, and for what values of x does your equation no longer make logical
sense? Explain." If you look at the y-value then you will notice that it
doesn't make sense because the y-intercept is -50 and the degree is 0.
However the lowest amount of water that humankind can drink 0 amount of
water. Therefore, it is very wrong and confusing.