SOLUTION: can anyone solve this problem? thank you for that someone.The circumference of a hind wheel of a wagon is 8 decimeters longer than that of the front wheel. In traveling one kilomet

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Question 356738: can anyone solve this problem? thank you for that someone.The circumference of a hind wheel of a wagon is 8 decimeters longer than that of the front wheel. In traveling one kilometer, the front wheel makes 62 ½ more revolutions than the hind wheel. Find the circumference of each wheel.
Found 2 solutions by Theo, Alan3354:
Answer by Theo(13342)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
It took a few tries because my mathematics was sloppy, even with a calculator, but I think I found the solution.

Here's how:

The main equation to work with is c*x = d

d = distance
c = circumference
x = number of revolutions

First thing you want to do is convert everything to a common measure.

I used meters.

1 kilometer = 1000 meters
8 decimeters = .8 meters

your formulas to work with are:

h * x = 1000

h is the circumference of the hind wheel.

f * (x + 62.5) = 1000

f is the circumference of the front wheel.

since they are both equal to 1000, then they are both equal to each other and you get:

h * x = f * (x + 62.5)

simplify this to get:

h * x = (f * x) + (62.5 * f)

you are given that h = f + .8 so you can substitute in this equation to get:

(f + .8) * x = (f * x) + (62.5 * f)

remove parentheses in the first equation to get:

(f * x) + (.8 * x) = (f * x) + (62.5 * f)

subtract (f * x) from both sides of the equation to get:

.8 * x = 62.5 * f

divide both sides of the equation by .8 to get:

x = 62.5 * f / .8 which becomes:

x = 78.125 * f

substitute for x in the equation of f * (x + 62.5) = 1000 to get:

f * ( 78.125 * f + 62.5) = 1000

simplify by removing parentheses to get:

78.125 * f^2 + 62.5 * f = 1000

subtract 1000 from both sides of the equation to get:

78.125 * f^2 + 62.5 * f - 1000 = 0

since this is the standard form of a quadratic equation, we get:

a = 78.125
b = 62.5
c = -1000

from this, we get:

2a = 156.25
-b = -62.5
b^2 = 3906.25
4ac = -312500
b^2 - 4ac = 3906.25 - (-312500) = 316406.25
sqrt(b^2-4ac) = sqrt(316406.25) = 562.5

f will be equal to ( -b +/- sqrt(b^2-4ac) ) / (2a)

this becomes f = (-62.5 +/- 562.5 ) / 156.25

you get:

f = 3.2 or f = -4

since f can't be negative, f must be equal to 3.2.

since h = f + .8, h must be equal to 4.

h * x = 1000 becomes 4 * x = 1000 which yields x = 1000 / 4 = 250

Let y = the number of revolutions of the smaller wheel.

You get f * y = 1000 which becomes 3.2 * y = 1000 which becomes y = 1000 / 3.2 = 312.5

y minus x yields 312.5 - 250 which equals 62.5.

y is equal to x + 62.5 which confirms the solution is good.

your equations are:

h * x = 1000 which becomes 4 * 250 = 1000 which becomes 1000 = 1000 which is true.

f * (x + 62.5) = 1000 which becomes 3.2 * (250 + 62.5) = 1000 which becomes 3.2 * 312.5 = 1000 which becomes 1000 = 1000 which is also true.

that's your answer.

the circumference of the front wheel is 3.2 meters.

the circumference of the hind wheel is 4 meters.

the number of revolutions of the front wheel is 312.

the number of revolutions of the hind wheel is 250.






Answer by Alan3354(69443)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The circumference of a hind wheel of a wagon is 8 decimeters longer than that of the front wheel. In traveling one kilometer, the front wheel makes 62 ½ more revolutions than the hind wheel. Find the circumference of each wheel.
-------------------
f = circumference of front
b = of rear
-----------
f = b+8
1 km = 10000 decimeters
---------
10000/f = revs of front
10000/b = revs of back
---------
10000/f = 10000/b - 62.5
10000/(b+8) = 10000/b - 62.5
10000b = 10000(b+8) - 62.5b(b+8)
6.25b^2 + 500b -10000b - 80000 = -10000b
125b^2 + 1000b - 20000b - 160000 = -20000b
125b^2 + 1000b - 160000 = 0
b^2 + 8b - 1280 = 0
(b - 32)*(b+40) = 0
b = 32 dm
f = 40 dm

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