Given:
The function that represents how the amount of fuel changes as a function of distance flown is
where x represents miles flown, and f(x) represents the amount of fuel remaining.
To find:
The rate of change for this scenario.
Solution:
The slope intercept form of a linear function is
...(i)
Where, m is the slope or rate of change and b is the y-intercept.
We have,
...(ii)
On comparing (i) and (ii), we get
Therefore, the rate of change for this scenario is -0.9. It means, the amount of fuel in the airplane is decreasing by 0.9 gallons per mile.