Question

At a national park in Wyoming, there was already 84 inches of snow on the ground. Then, snow fell during a snowstorm at a rate of 1.5 inches per hour for 12 hours. A park ranger created a linear model to relate the number of inches of snow on the ground, y, and the number of hours since the snowstorm began, x.
Which answer choice correctly interprets the slope and y-intercept of this linear model?
A
The slope is 102 inches, and the y-intercept is 18 total inches.

B
The slope is 102 inches, and the y-intercept is 1.5 inches per hour.

C
The slope is 18 total inches, and the y-intercept is 84 inches.

D
The slope is 1.5 inches per hour, and the y-intercept is 84 inches.

Answer 1

Answer:

D

Step-by-step explanation:

At a national park in Wyoming, there was already 84 inches of snow on the ground.

Then, snow fell during a snowstorm at a rate of 1.5 inches per hour for 12 hours.

The linear function which describes this situation is

$y=84+1.5x,$

where x is the number of hours since the snowstorm began, y is the number of inches of snow on the ground.

For the linear function

$y=mx+b,$

the slope is m and the y-intercept is b.

Thus, the slope of this linear function is 1.5 and the meaning of the slope is 1.5 inches per hour and the y-intercept is 84 inches.