A model predicts that a certain elephant calf weighed 249 pounds when…

Question

Prompt

A model predicts that a certain elephant calf weighed 249 pounds when it was born and that the calf gained 2 pounds per day in its first year of life. This model is defined by an equation in the form

f (x) = a + b x

, where

f (x)

is the predicted weight, in pounds, of the elephant calf

x

days after it was born, and

a

and

b

are constants. What is the value of

a