SOLUTION: A dog owner is told by the veterinarian that his dog, Max, is overweight and needs to lose 4 to 5 pounds in order to live a healthy life. The dog weighs 126 pounds when he is put o

Question 1123532: A dog owner is told by the veterinarian that his dog, Max, is overweight and needs to lose 4 to 5 pounds in order to live a healthy life. The dog weighs 126 pounds when he is put on a special diet to aid in the weight loss. The vet predicts that the diet will allow Max to lose 4 ounces per week. Max is brought to the vet every 2 weeks for a weight check. Write an equation to represent the doctor's prediction, and the relationship between Max's weight in pounds, y, and the number of times Max's weight is checked, x, in periods of two weeks. Reduce all answers to the nearest tenth of a number.
Answer by Theo(13342) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
let x represent one 2 week period.

if the dog is expected to lose 4 ounces a week, then the dog is expected to lose 8 ounces every 2 weeks.

the dog starts at 126 pounds.

8 ounces is half a pound, so the dog is expected to lose .5 pounds every 2 weeks.

the formula would be y = 126 - .5 * x

y is the expected weight of the dog after x two week periods.

x is the number of two week periods.

if you want to know how long it will take the dog to lose 5 pounds, then take 126 and subtract 5 to get 121 pounds.

the formula then becomes 121 = 126 - .5 * x

solve for x to get x = (126 - 121) / .5 = 5 /.5 = 10 two week periods, or 20 weeks.

this formula can be graphed as shown below:

$$$

in the graph, y is the weight of the dog in pounds and x is the numbe of two week periods from when the diet started.
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