I NEED HELPPP QUESTION IS IN IMAGE

In the final round of trivia competition, contestants were asked to name as many states that begin with the letter m as they could in 15 seconds. the bar graph shows the number of states the contestants were able to name. how many contestants participated in the final round of the competition?

Which best describes the function on the graph? direct variation; k = −2 direct variation; k = -1/2 inverse variation; k = −2 inverse variation; k = -1/2

The federal reserve controls certain interest rates in the united states. investors often try to speculate as to whether the federal reserve will raise or lower rates and by how much. suppose a company conducts extensive interviews with financial analysts, and as a result, predicts that "thefed" will increase rates by an average of 0.25 percentage points every six months for the forseeable future. which type of equation could be used to model the predicted interest rates over the next several years, assuming no other significant changes? a) a linear equation b) a quadratic equation c) a polynomial equation d) an exponential equation