Question

A scuba diver wants to descend at an average rate of at least 7 feet per minute for 5 minutes. The table shows how many feet the scuba diver descends in the first 4 minutes. How many feet must the scuba diver descend in the fifth minute to meet the goal?
Scuba Diver
Minute Distance Descended (feet)
1 9
2 11
3 5
4 7

Answer 1

The scuba diver must descend 3 feet in the fifth minute to meet the goal.

Why?

To find how many feet does the scuba diver need to descend to reach the goal of 35 feet in 5 minutes, we need to calculate how many feet he did descend on the first 4 minutes.

So, calculating we have:

$FirstMinute=9ft\\SecondMinute=11ft\\ThirdMinute=5ft\\FourthMinute=7ft\\Total=9ft+11ft+5ft+7ft=32ft\\\\Goal=35ft\\\\Needed=Goal-Total(4Minutes)\\\\Needed=35ft-32ft=3ft$

Hence, we can see that at the 4 minute, he has only descended 32ft. It means that he need to descend 3 feet more in the fifth minute.

Have a nice day!