What is a rate?

1 Answer
reudhreghs
Apr 5, 2016

A rate is how quickly something happens.

Explanation:

A rate is how quickly something happens with respect to another variable, such as #"time"# or #x#.

If something is moving at a quick rate, it is covering many meters for every second. Second is a unit of time, so motion is to do with rates relevant to time.

You can also have a rate of change, which can be any rate, not necessarily to do with time.

For example, a gradient of a graph is how quickly #y# changes with relevance to #x#. A steep gradient means there is a lot of change in #y# for every #x#, while a shallow gradient means that #y# does not change much for one #x#.

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