SOLUTION: Two cyclists start biking from a trail's start 3 hours apart. The second cyclist travels at 10 miles per hour and starts 3 hours after the first cyclist who is traveling at 6 miles
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Question 262931: Two cyclists start biking from a trail's start 3 hours apart. The second cyclist travels at 10 miles per hour and starts 3 hours after the first cyclist who is traveling at 6 miles per hour. How much time will pass before the second cyclist catches up with the first from the time the second cyclist started biking?
A. 2 hours
B. 4 ½ hours
C. 5 ¾ hours
D. 6 hours
E. 7 ½ hours
You can put this solution on YOUR website! I have a stopwatch and I'll start it when the 2nd
cyclist leaves. At that time the 1st cyclist has gone mi
Now they will each go for the same time on my stopwatch, so , which I'll just call
From these,
I know 1 more thing about the distances: , since the 2nd cyclist has to make up
the headstart the 1st one got
Substituting: mi
and mi
Now, I need to find
(1)
(2)
-------------------
(1) hrs
and, also
(2) hrs
How much time will pass before the second cyclist catches up with the first from the time the second cyclist started biking?
This means that the 3 hr headstart is not to be included in answer
so, 4.5 hrs will pass
The answer is B