You walk 0.5 miles in 10 minutes, wait for the bus for 4 minutes, and then you ride the bus for 2 miles and it takes 4 minutes.
B
b
Walking Slope: 1/20
Waiting Slope: 0 Bus Slope: 1/2
Practice makes perfect
a
On the graph there are three unique sections. These include the time we are walking to the bus stop, the time spent waiting for the bus at the bus stop, and the time riding the bus.
It takes us 10 minutes to walk the 0.5 miles to the bus stop. Then, we stand still while waiting for the bus for 4 minutes. Finally, we get on the bus and ride for 4 minutes and go 2 miles.
b
In this example, the slope of each segment is found by calculating the speed.
m = speed ⇒ m=Distance/Time
We can do this because we have the distance on the y-axis and the time on the x-axis. Let's calculate this for each segment.
Segment
Distance/Time
m
Walking
0.5/10
1/20
Waiting
0/4
0
Riding the bus
2/4
1/2
The first slope means that we can walk 1 mile in 20 minutes, which is 3 miles per hour. The second slope means that when standing still, as our distance does not change at all, so we are going 0 miles per hour. The third slope means that when riding the bus, we travel 1 mile every 2 minutes, or 30 miles per hour.
