Every day the Undergraduate Office of Admissions receives inquiries from eager high school students (e.g. "Please send me an application",etc.) They keep a running count of the number of inquiries received each day, along with the total number received until that point. Below is a table of weekly figures from about the end of August to about the end of October of a recent year. One of these columns can be interpreted as a rate of change. Which one is it?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The "Inquiries That Week" column represents the rate of change, as it shows the number of inquiries received in a particular week, which is a measure of how much the total number of inquiries has increased from the previous week. The "Total for Year" column shows the cumulative sum of all inquiries received until that point, but does not directly show the rate of change. The "Week of" column simply indicates the specific week being reported and does not provide any information on rate of change.

Every Day the Undergraduate Office of Admissions Receives Inquiries from Eager