Physical Science The accompanying graph shows the winning time (in minutes) at the Olympic...

Physical Science The accompanying graph shows the winning time (in minutes) at the Olympic Games from 1952 to 2008 for the men’s 5000-meter run, together with a linear approximation of the data:*

(a) The equation for the linear approximation is

 

What does the slope of this line represent? Why is the slope negative?

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(b) Use the approximation to estimate the winning time in the 2012 Olympics. If possible, check this estimate against the actual time.

*The World Almanac and Book of Facts: 2009.