Question

A large container holds 5 gallons of water. It begins leaking at a constant rate. After 20 minutes, the container has 3 gallons of water left. At what rate is the water leaking? Express your answer as a positive value.

Answer 1

The container will take 25 minutes to go from full to empty.

Explanation:

In 15 minutes, the container has lost 3 gallons of water (

5

−

2

=

3

).

Since the leak is at a constant rate, we can determine that every five minutes the container loses one gallon.

So for the container to lose the full 5 gallons will take 25 minutes (

5

×

5

=

25

)