The frequency of crickets chirping varies according to temperature, meaning that the warmer the temperature, the more a cricket will chirp and the colder the temperature, the less a cricket will chirp.
A group of students decided to determine the relationship between crickets chirping and the temperature. They recorded the temperature and the number of cricket chirps in one minute on one night in the spring and one night in the summer.
If we let the variable \(x\) represent the number of cricket chirps counted in one minute and the variable \(y\) represent the temperature (in degrees Fahrenheit), we can write the two ordered pairs to represent the students’ data below:
Point \(1\ (80,57)\) and Point \(2 \ (184,83)\)
1. Plot these two points on a coordinate plane like the one provided below.
2. Use your graph to determine the slope between these two points which is the ratio of the change in \(y\) (rise) over the change in \(x\) (run).
Slope:
3. According to the slope, what is the relationship between the number of cricket chirps in one minute and the temperature (in degrees Fahrenheit)? Fill in the blanks to complete the sentence below:
The temperature rises _ degree(s) Fahrenheit for every _ chirp(s) from a cricket in one minute.
Go to Try This! (Calculating Slope)