If we have a constant rate of change in time for the temperature, we can model this as a linear function.
The slope of this function is constant and is equal to the rate of change.
We can write the slope as:
[tex]m=\frac{\Delta T}{\Delta t}=\frac{-35.7\text{ \degree{}C}}{8.5\text{ hours}}=4.2\text{ \degree{}C/hour}[/tex]The slope is equal to the variation in the temperature divided by the time interval for that variation.
Then, we can conclude that the change in temperature is -4.2
