Have you or a friend ever run in a 10K (10,000 meter) race

Chapter 1, Problem 24

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Have you or a friend ever run in a 10K (10,000 meter) race? When the author polled his precalculus class at UCLA in Fall 1997, he found that there were five students in the class (of 160) who said they had run a 10K in under 50 minutes. Of those five, two (one male, one female) said they had run a 10K in under 40 minutes. The world record for this event is well under 30 minutes. In this exercise youll look at some of the world records in this event over the past decade. (a) The table that follows lists the world records in the (mens) 10,000 meter race as of the end of the years 1993, 1995, and 1997. After converting the times into seconds, plot the three points corresponding to these records in a coordinate system similar to the one shown. Year Time Runner 1993 26:58.38 Yobes Ondieki (Kenya) 1995 26:43.53 Haile Gebrselassie (Kenya) 1997 26:27.85 Paul Tergat (Kenya) (b) Use the midpoint formula and the data for 1993 and 1995 to compute an estimate for what the world record might have been by the end of 1994. Then compute the percentage error (rounded to two decimal places), given that the record at the end of 1994 was 26:52.23 (set by William Seigei of Kenya). Was your estimate too high or too low? (c) Use the midpoint formula and the data for 1995 and 1997 to compute an estimate for what the world record might have been by the end of 1996. Then compute the percentage error given that the record at the end of 1996 was 26:38.08 (set by Salah Hissou of Morocco). Was your estimate too high or too low? Is the percentage error more or less than that obtained in part (b)?(d) Using a coordinate system similar to the one shown in part (a), or using a photocopy, plot the points corresponding to the (actual, not estimated) world records for the years 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998. Except for 1998, all the records have been given above. The world record at the end of 1998 was 26:22.75 (set by Haile Gebrselassie of Kenya). Use the picture you obtain to say whether or not the record times seem to be leveling off