A certain nation is losing 26 million acres of rain forest each year.
(a) Find the linear function f that calculates the change in acres of rain forest in millions in x years.
Use x as a variable
(b) find f(3) and interperate the result.
f(t)= Simplify
Interperate result
After ? number of years the region can expect to have lost about ? million acres of rain forest.
(a) To find the linear function that calculates the change in acres of rain forest in x years, we can use the given information that the nation is losing 26 million acres of rain forest each year.
Let's denote the change in acres of rain forest in millions as y and the number of years as x. We want to find the linear function f(x) that represents this relationship.
Since the nation is losing 26 million acres of rain forest each year, the change in acres, y, is equal to -26x (negative because it represents a loss) million acres.
Therefore, the linear function f(x) is given by:
f(x) = -26x
(b) To find f(3), we substitute x = 3 into the function f(x):
f(3) = -26(3)
f(3) = -78
Interpreting the result:
After 3 years, the region can expect to have lost about 78 million acres of rain forest.
Note: In this context, negative values indicate a loss of rain forest acreage.