Question

An oil drilling company drills the same distance each day for 5 days. They started at an elevation of 121.175 feet and ended at an elevation of -246.875 feet. Which equation can be used to find x, the distance they drilled each day?

Answer 1

Answer:

$x=\dfrac{|-246.875-121.175|}{5}$

Step-by-step explanation:

Given that:

Same distance is drilled by the oil drilling company for 5 days.

Initial elevation = 121.175 feet

Final elevation = -246.875 feet

To find:

The equation to find the value of $x$ i.e. the distance drilled each day?

Solution:

To find the distance drilled each day, we need to divide the total distance drilled with the number of days taken to drill the total distance.

Total distance drilled can be found by subtracting the initial elevation from the final elevation and taking modulus because distance can not be negative.

Total distance drilled = | Final elevation - Initial elevation |

Total distance drilled = | -246.875 - 121.175 |

Therefore, we can write the expression as:

$x=\dfrac{|-246.875-121.175|}{5}$

$\Rightarrow x=\dfrac{|-368.05 |}{5} =73.61\ ft/day$