Owners of a recreation area are filling a small pond with water

Question

Owners of a recreation area are filling a small pond with water. They are adding water at a rate of 26 liters per minute. There are 300 liters in the pond to start. Let W represent the total amount of water in the pond (in liters), and let T represent the total number of minutes that water has been added. Write an equation relating W to T. Then use this equation to find the total amount of water after 19 minutes.

Answer 1

After 1 minute, we've added 26 liters. After 2 minutes, we've added another 26 liters, for a total of 52 liters. After 3 minutes, we've added another 26 liters, for a total of 78 liters. I think you can see that after T minutes, we've added 26T liters.

W is the total amount of water in the pond, so we have:

W = starting amount of water + amount of water added

W = 300 + 26T

If you want W after 19 minutes, then let T = 19 and solve.