SOLUTION: John and Mike have been friends since school but haven't seen each other in many years, so they agree to meet one Saturday. John leaves his house at 10:00 am and drives east at 50

Question 157685: John and Mike have been friends since school but haven't seen each other in many years, so they agree to meet one Saturday. John leaves his house at 10:00 am and drives east at 50 miles per hour. Mike leaves his house at the same time and drives west at 45 miles per hour. If their houses are connected by a straight highway running east-west (no stoplights or towns in the way) and are 350 miles apart then (a) how far from John's house will they meet? (b) at what time will they meet?

Answer by ptaylor(1894) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!

Distance(d) equals Rate(r) times Time(t) or d=rt; r=d/t and t=d/r
Let t=amount of time that elapses until they meet
During this time, John drives a distance of 50t miles
And during this time, Mikes drives a distance of 45t miles
Now we know that when the sum of the above two distances equals 350 mi, they will have met, so:
50t+45t=350
95t=350 divide both sides by 95
t=3.68 hour=3h 41 min----amount of time that elapses until they meet
So, 10:00am + 3h 41 min=
1:41pm-------the time that they meet (give or take a minute or so)
Distance John drives in 3.68 hr=50t=50*3.68=184 mi
So, when they meet, they will be 184 miles from John's house
Distance Mike drives =45t=45*3.68=165.6~~~~~166mi
CK
166+184=350
350=350
Hope this helps---ptaylor