Given:
An elephant at the zoo lost 30 pounds over six months.
To find:
The integer which represents the monthly weight loss.
Solution:
Total weight loss = 30 pounds
Number of months = 6
The weight loss in each month is
[tex]\\text{Monthly weight loss}=\dfrac{\text{Total weight loss}}{\text{Number of months}}[/tex]
[tex]\\text{Monthly weight loss}=\dfrac{30}{6}[/tex]
[tex]\\text{Monthly weight loss}=5[/tex]
Monthly weight loss is 5. So, the required integer which represents weight loss is -5. Here, negative sign represents the loss.
It means monthly weight loss is represented by -5.
