Determine which function is a better fit.

Andrew wants to estimate his gas mileage, or miles traveled per gallon of gas used. He records the number of gallons of gas he purchased and the total miles he traveled with that gas.

Create a scatter plot showing the relationship between gallons of gas and miles driven.

Which function is a better estimate for the function that relates gallons to miles: [math] or [math]?

How is the equation of the function related to his gas mileage?

This is a Java Applet created using GeoGebra from www.geogebra.org - it looks like you don't have Java installed, please go to www.java.com

  1. Plot each point on the coordinate plane.
  2. Graph the function [math] on the coordinate plane.
  3. Graph the function [math] on the same coordinate plane.
  4. Look at the graph of the data and the functions.
  5. Interpret the equation in the context of the problem, using the units of the x- and y-axes.


Created with GeoGebraShared by Walch Education, Mathguru
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