{"id":2242,"date":"2018-07-24T13:10:47","date_gmt":"2018-07-24T13:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-osalgebratrig\/?post_type=chapter&p=2242"},"modified":"2018-07-24T13:10:47","modified_gmt":"2018-07-24T13:10:47","slug":"introduction-to-linear-functions","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-osalgebratrig\/chapter\/introduction-to-linear-functions\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction to Linear Functions","rendered":"Introduction to Linear Functions"},"content":{"raw":"
\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"975\"]\"An Figure 1. <\/strong>A bamboo forest in China (credit: \"JFXie\"\/Flickr)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Imagine placing a plant in the ground one day and finding that it has doubled its height just a few days later. Although it may seem incredible, this can happen with certain types of bamboo species. These members of the grass family are the fastest-growing plants in the world. One species of bamboo has been observed to grow nearly 1.5 inches every hour. 1<\/a><\/sup> In a twenty-four hour period, this bamboo plant grows about 36 inches, or an incredible 3 feet! A constant rate of change, such as the growth cycle of this bamboo plant, is a linear function.<\/p>\r\n

Recall from Functions and Function Notation<\/a> that a function is a relation that assigns to every element in the domain exactly one element in the range. Linear functions are a specific type of function that can be used to model many real-world applications, such as plant growth over time. In this chapter, we will explore linear functions, their graphs, and how to relate them to data.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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Footnotes<\/h3>\r\n