Over the course of a full year, the daylight in a certain city follows a periodic pattern. The graph below represents the average daylight, in minutes, over the course of twenty-four months, with time t, representing the number of months after January 1 of a certain year.
What is the amplitude and what does it represent in this context?
0
Time (in months)
Average Daylight (in minutes)
t
h
0
Time (in months)
Average Daylight (in minutes)
(5.5, 898)
(17.5, 898)
(11.5, 514)
(23.5, 514)
The amplitude in this context is the difference between the maximum and minimum values of the average daylight. From the given graph, the maximum value of average daylight is 898 minutes and the minimum value is 514 minutes. Therefore, the amplitude is 898 - 514 = 384 minutes.
In this context, the amplitude represents the difference in the length of daylight between the longest day and the shortest day over the course of a year.