Rational Functions and Time Passed During a Trip

Rational Functions and Time Passed During a Trip

You will be driving from Central Texas College in Killeen to a town in Texas and looking at the effect of

driving the distance at different speeds.

Choose any city/town in Texas that is at least 50 miles from Central Texas College in Killeen, TX, by road.

Go to Google Maps (https://maps.google.com) and find directions from CTC to the city/town of your

choice. Take a screenshot of the directions like you did for Lab 1, which you will upload in Blackboard

when you turn in the lab there. Note the distance of the trip in miles:

Distance One Way: _______________________ miles

You drive from CTC in Killeen to your town of choice. After 3 hours, you receive a phone call and

immediately return to CTC in Killeen. Calculate the total time for the trip for the different speeds (not

necessarily realistic, legal, or even safe speeds). Remember the equation . We

can rearrange the equation to make

and that you are going round-trip. What effect

does spending 3 hours there have on the total time?

Speed 0.5 mph 1 mph 2 mph 10 mph 20 mph 40 mph 80 mph 160 mph

Total Time (hours)

Write an equation for the total time of the trip as a function of the speed

Graph your function in an appropriate window. What values of (speed) and (time) make sense in

the context of this problem?

Domain: Range:

Where is the function increasing, decreasing, constant?

Increasing: Decreasing: _____ Constant:

As your speed gets faster, the total time approaches _____________________ because

_________________________________________________________________________.

As your speed gets closer and closer to 0 mph, your total time approaches ______________________

because