Rates of Change of Graphs Flashcards

All 5 cards in this deck

What does the gradient of a straight line graph in a real-life context represent?

The rate of change of the $y$ quantity per unit of the $x$ quantity.
e.g. litres per second.

A graph shows the volume of water, $V$ litres, in a tank at time $t$ seconds. What does the gradient represent?

The rate of change of volume — how fast the water is flowing in or out, in litres per second.

On a graph of pay (£) against hours worked, what does the gradient tell you?

The hourly rate of pay — how much is paid for each hour worked.

On a line graph of temperature against time, how do you find the time at which a given temperature occurred?
e.g. when the liquid was at 50 °C

Read across from $50$ on the temperature axis to the line, then straight down to the time axis.

True or false? On a line graph over time, a steeper section means the quantity is changing more quickly.

True.
A steeper gradient means a faster rate of change.