Sign In
Determine the x value for which f(x)=0.
The first flight takes less time. See solution.
Example 2 provides the number of miles a helicopter travels on various trips. To begin, we will draw the graph given in the example.
The graph above shows the distance traveled for the first flight. We can see that this flight took 3 hours because the distance to the destination is 0 when x=3. We are also given the function for the second flight.
f(x)=250-75x
| x | 250 - 75x | f(x) |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 250 - 75( 0) | 250 |
| 1 | 250 - 75( 1) | 175 |
| 2 | 250 - 75( 2) | 100 |
| 3 | 250 - 75( 3) | 25 |
| 4 | 250 - 75( 4) | -50 |
Now we will plot the found ordered pairs.
Let's draw a line through the points. Note that the function only makes sense when x and f(x) are positive.
From the graph of the second flight, we can see that when f(x)=0, x>3. Therefore, the first flight takes less time. To check this answer we can substitute f(x)=0 into the equation and solve for x.
f(x)= 0
LHS+75x=RHS+75x
.LHS /75.=.RHS /75.
The second flight takes 3.33 hours. Therefore, we confirmed that the first flight takes less time.