The vet told Jake that his dog, Rocco, who weighed 55 pounds, needed to lose 10 pounds. Jake started walking Rocco every day and changed the amount of food he was feeding him. Rocco lost half a pound the first week. Jake wants to determine Rocco’s weight in pounds, p, after w weeks if Rocco continues to lose weight based on his vet’s advice.

This is technically impossible in real life, but we are assuming in this case that Rocco is going to constantly lose half a pound per week. Therefore, we can model this scenario using this equation:Rocco's current weight = initial weight - (half pound per week * # weeks)p = 55 - 0.5*w Now if we follow the vet's advice than Rocco needs to lose 10 pounds making his new weight 55-10 = 45 pounds which means p = 45 and it would take 20 weeks (w=20)