A fisherman is measuring the amount of bait he has remaining, y, in his bucket. He puts 36 pieces of bait in his bucket at the beginning of his fishing trip and uses 3 pieces every hour, x.

Question

A fisherman is measuring the amount of bait he has remaining, y, in his bucket. He puts 36 pieces of bait in his bucket at the beginning of his fishing trip and uses 3 pieces every hour, x.

What is the slope for this linear relationship, and what does it mean in this situation?

3; the amount of bait increases by 3 pieces each hour
−3; the amount of bait decreases by 3 pieces each hour
36; the amount of bait in the bucket when the fishing trip began
−36; the amount of bait in the bucket when the fishing trip began

Answer 1

-3; the amount of bait decreases by 3 pieces each hour

In this situation, the slope of -3 indicates that the amount of bait in the bucket decreases by 3 pieces every hour as the fisherman uses the bait for fishing.