Making Predictions With a Graph

Video Transcript

"Ok, here I'm going to show you how to make predictions with a graph. Let's just say that this graph represents the altitude of a rocket as a function of time. So at one second, the rocket is at 100 feet of altitude, two seconds at 200 feet, and so on. Using the data points that we already have, we can try to make predictions about the future height of the rocket as a function of time. So what I've done here is assume that the height varies linearly, which means that for every one second of time elapsed, the rocket will increase its height by 100 feet. Since my data only goes up to four seconds, if I want to predict the height of my rocket after five seconds, I would have to assume that the rocket will increase its height by 100 feet every additional second. So I'll predict that after five seconds I'll have increased my height by another 100 feet to make it be at 500, and if I want to further predict 6, 7, 8, 9 seconds, I would increase my height by 100 feet for every additional second that I want to predict. Now, we need to be careful about how accurate we are with our predictions in assuming that it's 100 feet for every second. Using this method, I can find out the altitude of the rocket after 5, 6, 7, 8, however many seconds I want, by using the rule of increase of 100 feet per every second. This way I can find the value of the height even beyond the data that I have already read."