Remember that the speed is the ratio of the change in distance to the change in time.
Description: See solution. Winner: Team A
Practice makes perfect
We are given a graph showing the distance from the finish line over time of two rowing teams in a race.
Remember that the speed is the ratio of the change in distance to the change in time.
s = Change in Distance/Change in Time
This have the same form as the slope of a line.
m = Vertical Change/Horizontal Change
In our case, the vertical axis represents the distance traveled and the horizontal axis represents the time. Then, the slope is the rate between the distance and time. This means that the slope represents the speed. We want to describe the speed of each team throughout the race. Let's do it one at time!
Team A
At the beginning, the distance decreases at a constant rate. Then, the speed is also decreasing at a constant rate. After that, the distance decreases at a faster rate, which means that the speed is also decreasing very fast. At a certain point the distance becomes slow until it reaches the x-axis. This represents that the speed becomes slow until the team finishes the race.
Team B
At the beginning of the race, the distance decreases at a non-constant rate. This means that the speed of Team B is also decreasing at a non-constant rate. At a certain point, the distance begins to decrease rapidly until it reaches the x-axis. This shows that the speed also becomes slower as the team approaches the end of the race.
From the given graph, we can see that Team A is the first in reaches the x-axis. Therefore, Team A finishes the race first.
