SOLUTION: Please help. I am not good with word problems. I don't know where to start. John and Tony start from the same place and at the same time and head for a town 10 miles away. John

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Question 278675: Please help. I am not good with word problems. I don't know where to start.
John and Tony start from the same place and at the same time and head for a town 10 miles away. John walks twice as fast as Tony and arrives 3 hours before Tony. Find the speed of each.
Answer by Edwin McCravy(20060) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Please help. I am not good with word problems. I don't know where to start.
John and Tony start from the same place and at the same time and head for a town 10 miles away. John walks twice as fast as Tony and arrives 3 hours before Tony. Find the speed of each.

It can be done with only one unknown but I'll use two.
Hope you've had systems of equations.

       distance   rate  time
John     10        2r   t-3
Tony     10         r    t

system%28distance+=+rate%2Atime%2C10=2r%28t-3%29%2C10=rt%29

system%2810=2rt-6r%2C10=rt%29

Sustitute 10 for rt in the first

10=2%2810%29-6r

10=20-6r

6r=10

r=10%2F6

r=5%2F3

r=1%262%2F3

So Tony walked 1%262%2F3 mph

John walks twice that fast or 10%2F3 or 3%261%2F3 mph.

Edwin