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A tank contained some water. The function represents the relationship between , time in minutes, and the amount of water in the tank in liters. The equation defines this function.
Discuss with a partner:
A tank contained 80 liters of water. The function represents the relationship between , time in minutes, and the amount of water in the tank in liters. The equation defines this function.
In 2004, less than 5% of the homes in the United States relied on a cell phone instead of a landline phone. Since then, the percentage of homes that used only cell phones has increased.
Here are the percentages of homes with only cell phones from 2004 to 2009.
| years since 2004 | percentages |
|---|---|
| 0 | 4.4 |
| 1 | 6.7 |
| 2 | 9.6 |
| 3 | 13.6 |
| 4 | 17.5 |
| 5 | 22.7 |
Suppose a linear function, , gives us the percentage of homes with only cell phones as a function of years since 2004, .
Fit a line on the scatter plot to represent this function, and write an equation that could define the function. Use function notation.
The water in a rain barrel is being drained and used to water a garden. Function gives the volume of water remaining in the barrel, in gallons, minutes after it started being drained. This equation represents the function:
From the equation and description, we can reason that there were 60 gallons of water in the rain barrel, and that it was being drained at a constant rate of 2.25 gallons per minute.
This equation is handy for finding out the amount of water left in the barrel after some number of minutes. In other words, it helps us find the output, , when we know the input, .
Suppose we want to know how long it would take before the barrel has 20 gallons of water remaining or how long it would take to empty the barrel. Let's find the inverse of function so that the volume of water is the input and time is the output.
Even though the equation is in function notation, we can still solve for as we had done before:
This equation now shows as the output and as the input. We can easily find or estimate the time when the barrel will have 20 gallons remaining by substituting 20 for and then evaluating . Or we can find the time when the barrel will have 0 gallons remaining by substituting 0 for and evaluating .