Download - Unit 8 Math Project Revised
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7/30/2019 Unit 8 Math Project Revised
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TODAYS WASTAGE IS
TOMORROW'S
SHORTAGEWhat does it take a family of four touse 300 KwH/month? For my yearlongproject, I worked with my family inorder to reduce our electricityconsumption. Although my familys
electricity usage isnt that bad, I stillfelt that there was room forimprovement. So I decided to take it asa challenge and reduce my familysusage. I started of this project bymaking a clear and organized plan andthen implementing it in our daily life.
The first step we took towardsconserving electricity was switchingoff the lights and air-cons when not inuse! My plan also included thefollowing steps: setting the air-cons to23 degree celsius, making use ofdaylight in the morning, turning on thewashing machines only with full loads,turning off all the electronicappliances when not in use, chargingthe electronics (iphones, ipads, laptopsetc.) in the morning instead ofcharging them overnight andovercharging them. Although we cameup with this plan and we agreed tofollow the plan, everything didnt go asper the plan because we kept forgettingabout it. So then I came up with anidea, and we decided to put stickynotes all around the house, specially,beside the switchboards as a reminder.
That idea really helped my family tokeep up with the plan and implementit.
My family has been very
supportive and cooperative with
helping me. My familys efforts
can be seen in the results as we
have come down from 575 KwH in
August to 485 KwH in March.
There were a few ups and downs
in the middle though. For
example, in November and
February my KwH went up
because we werent following our
plan due to many other
distractions like in February I had
guests so there were more people
in the house, which resulted in
using more electricity. As you can
see in the data, December is the
month when I actually stayed on
top of the plan and made sure that
everyone followed it and so my
efforts showed of in that months
bill. I hope that we continue this
plan and make consistent efforts
to have a sustainable living.
Lookin at the Results
May 7th, 2013 SNEKHA SELVAKUMAR
continued on page 2
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7/30/2019 Unit 8 Math Project Revised
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By Snekha
The first step towards making a
prediction is drawing a fitted line in
the graph with my monthly data. The
efforts of my family have proven to
have paid off as the fitted line on the
graph has a negative slope which
means that my electricity usage has
been decreasing. The next step is to
find the equation of this fitted line. To
do this, I chose two points (1, 539)
and (7, 485). In order to find the
equation of the line, I need to use the
formula y=mx+b. So lets first start by
finding the slope of the line by using
this formula:
So now, just substitute and solve it:
Now I know that the slope of my fitted
line is -9. So far this is what my
equation looked like: y = -9x+b. Next, I
have to determine my y-intercept. To
do this, I will have to substitute any
one of the coordinates with x and y.
In my case, I chose to substitute the
ordered pair (1, 539). Heres what it
will look like after substitution:
Now we solve this
equation to find out y-intercept(b).
Following are the steps of how I found
b using the formula above:
Therefore, the equation of my fitted
line is y= -9x + 548. Now I will use this
equation to make a prediction about
how many months it will take my
family to bring my monthly electricity
usage to 300 KwH.
LINEAR RELATIONSHIPS
AND TRENDS
Considering that my fitted line goes downhill and is a example of
linear decay, this matches with the trends that my family is working
towards to make a positive difference. There is a clear and strong
relationship between the line and the trends. The more electricity
we conserve each month the steeper the slope will be. There is
also a clear connection between the efforts my family has put in
this the action and the line because when we put in more effort
and make sure everything goes right, the KwH decreases however
sometimes when we become careless and forget about our plans,
then again our usage goes up drastically. This can be clearly seen in
my graph and my table.
MAKING A PREDICTION!Now that I have my equation, I just need to substitute and solve to find
the no. of months it will take my family to bring down my electricity
usage to 300 KwH per month. As y represents the amount of KwH in
the equation, we have to substitute 300 for y and then solve for x. So
this what the substitution and the solving should look like:
In conclusion, it will take my family approximately 28
months to bring our electricity usage down to 300 KwH
if we continue reducing our usage at this rate!
Finding the Equation ofm Fitted Line!