After two minutes of cooling, it was at 178 degrees and after five minutes of cooling it was at 154 degrees. At what temperature did the liquid start cooling? Show how you arrived at your answer.

Answer 1

Dear Hailie

It can helps to find the answer to this question if you make a table like this:

Time (minutes) Temperature (degrees)

2 178

5 154

We can see that in a period of 3 minutes ( 5 -2 ) the temperature is 24 degrees lower = (178 - 154) = 24 degrees. It means that each minute the temperature decreases by 8 degrees = 24 degrees / 3 minutes = 8 degrees/ 1 minute

At the moment that the liquid started cooling the time is 0 minutes. Then the period of time between start cooling and the first measure is just 2 minutes. It means that you have 2 minutes * 8 degrees /minute = 16 degrees less in a period of 2 minutes.

The temperature at the moment that it started cooling is: 178 degrees + 16 degrees = 194 degrees