On equal intervals, the y-values of a quadratic function have a common

  second difference

Step-by-step explanation:

The differences of the y-values will differ by a common amount.

Example:

  y = x^2 for x = 2, 4, 6, 8

  y-values are 4, 16, 36, 64

  differences of these are 12, 20, 28

  differences of these differences are 8 and 8, a common value.

step-by-step explanation:

12: 00 p.m. to 7: 00 p.m. is a total of 7 hours.

4: 00 p.m. to 7: 00 p.m. is a total of 3 hours.

this means that from 4: 00 p.m to 7: 00 p.m. this represents 3/7 of what was lost from 12: 00 p.m. to 7: 00 p.m.

after knowing this, after doing 11,600 - 6,800 = 4,800

4,800 represents 3/7 of what was lost for 7 hours.

we then divide 4,800 by 3 which gets 1,600.

because we know that 1,600 represents 1/7 of how much water was lost, we just have to multiply by 7, which gets 11,200.   after adding 11,200 to how much water was left at 7: 00 p.m. which was 6,800. 11,200 + 6,800 = 18,000

this means that the pool originally had 18,000 gallons in the pool.

you can also check your work by doing 18,000 - 4(1600), which becomes           1800 - 6400 which gets you 11,600.