Skydivers typically wear an altimeter on their wrist to show them their current altitude. A skydiver starts at an altitude of 5500 feet and begins to descend at a rate of 12 feet per second. If the skydiver deploys their parachute at 3000 feet, how many minutes will they freefall before deploying the parachute? Round your answer to the nearest tenth.

A skydiver descends from 5500 feet to 3000 feet at a rate of 12 feet per second, resulting in a freefall time of approximately 208.33 seconds, or 3.5 minutes when rounded to the nearest tenth.

Explanation:

The question involves determining the time it takes for a skydiver to descend from 5500 feet to 3000 feet at a rate of 12 feet per second. First, we need to calculate the total distance that the skydiver will freefall before deploying the parachute:

Start altitude: 5500 feet
Parachute deployment altitude: 3000 feet

Distance to freefall = 5500 feet - 3000 feet = 2500 feet

Next, we use the rate of descent to find the time in seconds:

Time (seconds) = Distance / Rate = 2500 feet / 12 feet/second = 208.33 seconds

To convert seconds into minutes, we divide by 60:

Time (minutes) = Time (seconds) / 60 = 208.33 seconds / 60 = 3.4722 minutes

Rounding to the nearest tenth gives us:

Time (minutes) = 3.5 minutes

Therefore, the skydiver will freefall for 3.5 minutes before deploying the parachute.