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Brenda and her husband are traveling through the hill country.Brenda is using a GPS device to record her altitude over the courseof her trip. After beginning the trip driving uphill, at 7 minutesinto the drive she notices that they are at sea level. At sealevel, altitude readings read 0: above sea level makes altitudereadings positive, and below sea level makes altitude readingsnegative. After 7 minutes the altitude readings became positive andstayed positive until 9 minutes into the drive. Nine minutes intothe drive they are again at sea level, for the last time during thetrip, and afterwards continue to be above sea level.

a. If a function was created to model their altitude over thecourse of the trip, how many zeros would it have? Why?

b. For each zero, determine if the graph of the function wouldcross or only touch the x-axis based on the given information.Explain your answer.

c. Create a function, a(x), to represent their altitude afterx minutes of driving using the information you have been givenabove.

d. After the first two minutes of driving, Brenda recordedtheir altitude as 23 feet below sea level. To get a better estimateof the function, use the value to determine a constant factor ofthe function.

e. Use the resulting equation from part d. to approximatetheir altitude 15 minutes after they left.