Final Math Project

7/30/2019 Final Math Project

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/final-math-project 1/2

The ProcessFor my yearlong project I tried to

reduce my family’s monthly

electricity usage. I created a plan

with my family to try and reduce

the usage. Once I had identied my

home’s most used electric

appliances that is when I started to

take action with the help of my

family.

The most used appliances are the

air conditioners. We have 11 air-

cons as we have a 4-bedroom

house. The apartment has 3 oors

and is quite spacious but we don't

use all 11 at the same time. Though

at rst they weren’t always put at a

low temperature. Since we have a

big house with large windows, light

switches weren’t a big problem. Wedidn’t use them during the day and

always remembered to turn them

off when they weren’t in use. Next

are the kitchen devices such as the

dishwasher, washing and drying

machines and the iron. Our house

doesn’t use a lot of these but when

we do, it has a big impact on our

KwH usage. Therefore, thinking of

ways to reduce their usage wascritical to the project plan. As for

the other electronic devices, we

had to make sure they were left

unplugged or uncharged when not

in use.

I am proud to say that my electricity usage from August hasdecreased in March by 465 KwH.There were a few bumps in themiddle though. For example, in themonths of December and January,

we had guests over so there were 6people in my house using electricity. Also, in the middle of my plan I had forgotten to remindmy family about the plan so theamount did not decrease. I nally thought of putting up sticky notesnear the air-con and lightswitches. This way it was easy toremind my family to turn them off

when not in use, and to keep the

temperature of the AC’s at 22degrees or more. February is themonth I put reminders into actionso by looking at the results table, ithas a lower KwH amount thaneven March. My lowest amount isin November when I had actually made it my priority to tell my parents about the plan and they had to follow it. The bottom line is,my family still has to work harderto try and reduce our usageamount. We still need to improveeven more as we have thetendency to forget to look after ourelectricity usage.

THE KHANS REDUCE ELECTRICITYCONSUMPTION IN THE FLIP OF A

SWITCH

ISSUE NO.1

WRITTEN BY: MINAHIL KHAN, PERIOD 1DATE PUBLISHED: MAY 7TH, 2013

EARTH DAILY

MONTHLY KWH USAGE

Here is a scatter plot showing the data I collected of my family’s electricity usage in KwH

Looking at the Results

7/30/2019 Final Math Project

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/final-math-project 2/2

In order to predict how many months it will take my family touse only 300 KwH, I would have tond the equation of the tted lineon my data graph. I will rst have

to nd the slope of this line inorder to create the equation. Tond the slope I will need 2 sets of coordinate pairs of the data. Any pair can work but I am going to

choose (6,2603) and (0, 3438).Now that I have these 2 coordinatepairs, I can solve to get the slope of the line.

Slope= 3438-2603 = 835

0-6 -6

Now I have the slope that isrounded to -139.2. It is a negativeslope because the line is going

downhill.

Now I have the slope (m) of the

line so I can t it into the equation: y=mx +b

Then, I can put in an ordered pair

for the x and y values so I can ndthe y-intercept of the equation (b).

y= -835x + b

6Then I can substitute the values

with the data values.

For example, I can use the orderedpair (0, 3438). I just need to solve

for b since that isthe missing part of the equation.

3438= -835(0) + b

6

3438 = 0 + b

3438 = b

Now I have all thecomponents tocreate the equationfor this line.

y= -835x + 3438

6

y= -139.2x + 3438*Rounded decimal

Now that I have the equation I cannd out how many months it willtake my family to cut down to 330KwH. I just need to substitute y. Y represents the KwH so I can

substitute it with 300 and leave x inthe equation because it representsthe number of months.

y= -139.2x +3438

300 = -139.2x + 3438

300 - 3438 = -139.2x + 3438

-3438

-3138 = -139.2x

-139.2 -139.2

22.5 = x

This means it would take about22 and a half months until my family would reach 300 KwH.Meaning it would take almost 2

years to decrease to that much,so I think my family has room toimprove. I do believe my family can work on this more and speedup the process if we try harder.

FAMILY’S MONTHLY KWH USAGE

Here are a few appliances used in my house. Think of ways to conserve

this electricity by not using all of it unnecessarily. Look on the let for sometips I used in my electricity usage conservation plan!

-Minahil Khan, Grade 8

Months KwH

August 3438

September 3487

October 2863

November 2218

December 3579

January 3328

February 2603

March 2973

How Many Months Will

It Take for the Khan

Family to use 300 KwH?

Remember to....