Question

Item 18





The minimum sustained wind speed of a Category 1 hurricane is 74 miles per hour. The maximum sustained wind speed is 95 miles per hour. Write an absolute value equation that represents the minimum and maximum speeds. Let v
v
represent the wind speed.

Answer 1

The first thing we have to do is to calculate the midpoint of the min and max speeds. We are given that the min and max is 74 and 95 respectively. The midpoint is then calculated as (max+min) / 2. Therefore:

midpoint = (74 + 95) / 2 = 84.5

 

Next, we calculate the distance from the midpoint to the endpoint by doing subtraction. Therefore:

min endpoint: 84.5 – 74 = 10.5

max endpoint: 95 – 84.5 = 10.5

 

Now we know that v minus the midpoint will equal the distance such that:

| v - midpoint | = distance.

To our problem,

| v – 84.5 | = 10.5