The expression 5⋅1.15t gives the area, in square meters, damaged by a fire as a function of minutes since the fire was discovered.What does 5 represent in this expression?Choose 1 answer:(A) An area of 5 square meters had been damaged by the fire by the time it was discovered.(B) It has been 5 minutes since the fire was discovered.(C) The area damaged by the fire is multiplied by 5 each minute.
Q. The expression 5⋅1.15t gives the area, in square meters, damaged by a fire as a function of minutes since the fire was discovered.What does 5 represent in this expression?Choose 1 answer:(A) An area of 5 square meters had been damaged by the fire by the time it was discovered.(B) It has been 5 minutes since the fire was discovered.(C) The area damaged by the fire is multiplied by 5 each minute.
Expression Structure: The expression given is 5×1.15t. To understand what the number 5 represents, we need to consider the structure of the expression. The expression is in the form of a×1.15t, where 'a' is a constant multiplier and 1.15t represents exponential growth over time 't'. The constant 'a' is the initial value before any growth has occurred.
Interpreting the Number 5: Since the expression represents the area damaged by a fire and the growth factor is 1.15(t), the number 5 must represent the initial area that was damaged by the fire at the time it was discovered, before any additional damage occurred over time. This means that when t=0, the area damaged is 5 square meters.
Matching the Number 5 to Answer Choices: Now, we can match our understanding of the number 5 in the expression to the given answer choices. The correct choice is (A) An area of 5 square meters had been damaged by the fire by the time it was discovered. This is because the number 5 is the coefficient that represents the initial condition of the expression, which in this context is the initial area damaged by the fire.
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