SOLUTION: When Larry drove to his meeting his average speed was 50 mph. On the way home the weather deteriorated so he was only able to maintain an average of 40 mph. If the trip home took 1

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Question 371169: When Larry drove to his meeting his average speed was 50 mph. On the way home the weather deteriorated so he was only able to maintain an average of 40 mph. If the trip home took 120 minutes longer than his trip to the meeting find the total distance Larry drove on his trip.
Answer by jvan(28) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let x = the hours it takes Larry to drive to the meeting. Let y = the hours it takes Larry to drive home. We can set up the equation in rate*time =distance formulas. Our equations will be 50%2Ax+=+distance and 40%2Ay=distance. We can set up another equation to relate the time: y=2%2Bx (since our variables are in hours, we have to convert 120 minutes into hours, 120 minutes is equal to 2 hours). The distance is the same both ways, so we can set combine the first two equations: 50x+=+40y. Now we can plug in our third equation to get: 50x+=+40%282%2Bx%29. Solving for x gives x = 8 hours. Plugging this into our first equation makes 50%2Ax+=+distance become 50%2A8+=+distance, so the distance is 400 miles. I hope this helps! Please visit and join my website at www.myonlinetutor.webs.com to get help with homework. ^-^