Question

Consider an airplane trip from Chicago, Illinois, to Denver, Colorado. List some path-dependent functions and some state functions for the plane trip.

Short answer

Path-dependent function: miles traveled, the fuel consumption of the airplane, time-traveling, airplane snacks are eaten, etc.

State functions: longitude change, latitude change, elevation change, and overall time zone change.

Step-by-step solution

The Path function.

Path-dependent functions for a plane trip are those quantities that are depending upon the route taken. Traveling from any destination mentioned in the questions, some path-dependent quantities are used.

These are like the miles traveled, the fuel consumption of the airplane, etc.

The State function.

State functions are path-independent functions as they only depend on the initial and final states. Some state functions for an airplane trip from Chicago to Denver would be longitude change, latitude change, elevation change, etc.