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Question 990057: After flying for 10 seconds, he is 2000 meters from her. Then at 14 seconds he is 1800 meters from her.
Write an equation to model this situation (use m for meters and s for seconds)
P.s: I have no idea how to form equations from word problems. Can you please teach me, so that in the future i can be able to solve these problems on my own, Thank you.
Answer by josmiceli(19441)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! I have some tips for word problems:
(1) Every word MAY be important -read carefully
(2) Right away, state that x = the unknown they
are looking for. This really helps.
(3) You might start at the end of what they give you
and start the solution from there- you don't
alway work in a straight line.
(4) Is it a mixture problem? Is it a rate problem?
Is it a work problem? Put it in a category
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What you have is a rate problem. It's not worded
very well because it should say that the plane is
flying at a constant speed, so I'll have to assume that.
Sometimes, I put down a formula in words instead of
symbols like for this problem:
[ change in distance ] / [ change in time ] = [ average speed ]
 meters / sec
The minus sign doesn't matter in this case, I just need the speed
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They want to know, after  seconds, how far in meters is
the plane from her
If  is distance in meters from her, I can say:
= flying time in seconds
= meters from her
 answer
Does this really work?
After flying for  sec,
 distance from her in meters
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After flying for  sec,
It works
It helps if you can plot the equation, or try to
visualize what the plot would look like in order
to search for an equation.
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Here's the plot:
I'll just clean up the equation:
Add to both sides
Subtract  from both sides
Hope this isn't too confusing-
keep plugging away -that's what
I've always had to do!
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