Question

NOLA hiked down a trail at a steady rate for 10 minutes. Her change in elevation was -200 feet. Then she continues to hike down for another 20 minutes at a different rate. Her change in elevation for this part of the hike was -300 feet. During which portion of the hike did she walk down at a faster rate? Explain your reasoning.

Answer 1

Well, there are a few ways to go about this problem. The easiest would be to compare the rates.

Nola did -200 feet in 10 min so we have -200 / 10

Next, Nola did -300 in 20 mins so we have -300/10

Now that we have our slope/rate we can compare the two.

-200 / 10 =  -20 ft/min

-300 / 20 =  -15 ft/min

As we can see, Nola walked down during the first portion  at a faster rate, which she went down -20 ft/min