Question

Calculate the average rate of change of f(x) = 1 x - x2 - 2 for 3 ≤ x ≤ 6. A) -163 18 B) -18 163 C) 163 18 D) 18 163

Answer 1

The answer is A.)-163/18

Answer 2

To solve this we are going to use the average rate of change formula: $A(x)= \frac{f(b)-f(a)}{b-a}$
where
$A(x)$ is the average rate of change of the function
$f(a)$ is the position function evaluated at $a$
$f(b)$ is the position function evaluated at $b$
$a$ is the first point in the interval
$b$ is the second point in the interval

We can infer for our problem that the first point is 3 and the second point is 6, so $a=3$ and $b=6$. Lets replace those values in our formula:
$A(x)= \frac{f(b)-f(a)}{b-a}$
$A(x)= \frac{f(6)-f(3)}{6-3}$
$A(x)= \frac{6-6^2-2-(3-3^2-2)}{3}$
$A(x)= \frac{-32-(-8)}{3}$
$A(x)= \frac{-32+8}{3}$
$A(x)= \frac{-24}{3}$
$A(x)=-8$

We can conclude that the average rate of change of the function f(x) = 1 x - x2 - 2 for 3 ≤ x ≤ 6 is -8