Is it possible to be in two (or three) places at the same time?
See solution.
Practice makes perfect
We are given two graphs and asked to tell whether each one is a function or not. We are also asked to explain which one is not a good representation of a real world situation. Let's analyze each graph, one at a time.
Graph A
Let's take a look at Graph A.
There are regions of the graph where more than one y-value is assigned to an x-value. This can be seen by drawing a vertical line in this region.
Therefore, Graph A does not represent a function. We will now look at what each axis represents. The x-axis represents time and the y-axis represents distance. This graph suggests that multiple distance values are assigned to a single point in time. We cannot be at more than one place at a same time! This graph does not represent a real life-situation.
Graph B
Let's now take a look at Graph B.
If we draw a vertical line in any place on the graph, we find that it intercepts the graph at only one point. This means that the graph is a function because each x-value is assigned to exactly one y-value. Since this graph assigns only one distance to each value of time, it can represent a real-life situation.
