College Algebra, Chapter 3, 3.3, Section 3.3, Problem 46

The graph below gives a sales representative's distance from his home as a function of time on a certain day.

"Please refer to the text book"

a.) At what intervals on which his distance from home was increasing and on which it was decreasing.

From 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM, 10:00 AM to 12:00 NN and 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM, the salesman's distance from his house is increasing. On the other hand, from time 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM and 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM, the salesman's distance from his house is decreasing.

b.) Describe in words what the graph, indicates about his travels on this day.

Let the straight lines indicate the resting period of the salesman during his travel. Maybe at these time, the salesman reached his destination and stayed for a certain period for some sort of a sales talk. These occurred at 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM, 12:00 NN to 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM. The period at which the curve is increasing, that's the time where the salesman is getting away from his house. On the other hand, the period at which the curve is decreasing, that's the time where the salesman is getting near from his house. We can say that his work ends at 6:00 PM and from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM, the salesman is going back to his house.