Question: A cardiac monitor is used to measure the heart rate of a patient after surgery. It compiles the number of heartbeats after t minutes. When the data in the table are graphed, the slope of the tangent line represents the heart rate in beats per minute.
|
t (min)
|
36
|
38
|
40
|
42
|
44
|
|
Heartbeats
|
2530
|
2661
|
2806
|
2948
|
3080
|
The monitor estimates this value by calculating the slope of a secant line. Use the data to estimate the patient's heart rate after 42 minutes using the secant line between the points with the given values of t.
(a) t = 36 and t = 42
(b) t = 38 and t = 42
(c) t = 40 and t = 42
(d) t = 42 and t = 44
What are your conclusions?