High School

Henry's water bottle is leaking at a constant rate. The amount of water, [tex]W[/tex] in ounces, left in the water bottle after leaking for [tex]m[/tex] minutes is given by the equation:

\[ W = -0.5m + 16 \]

What does the \(-0.5\) mean in the equation?

A. The water bottle loses 2 ounces of water per minute.
B. The water bottle loses 0.5 an ounce of water per minute.
C. The water bottle has 0.5 an ounce of water in it at the start.
D. 0.5 of the water has leaked from the water bottle in one minute.

Answer :

Answer:

• The water bottle loses 0.5 an ounce of water per minute

Step-by-step explanation:

The definition of the variables tells you that m stands for minutes and that W stands for the water remaining in the bottle. So, the -0.5m in the equation has the effect of reducing the remaining water by 0.5 each time m increases by 1. That is, there are 0.5 fewer ounces of water after each additional minute: the bottle loses 0.5 ounces per minute.

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