SOLUTION: Fred can ride a scooter at 15mph. Tom can pedal a bike at 9mph. They started at the same time travelling the same distance. Fred arrives at the destination 20 minutes ahead of Tom.

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Question 787931: Fred can ride a scooter at 15mph. Tom can pedal a bike at 9mph. They started at the same time travelling the same distance. Fred arrives at the destination 20 minutes ahead of Tom.
a)How long does it take Tom to arrive at the destination?
b)How far is the trip from starting point to destination?
PLEASE HELP!!!
Answer by solver91311(24713) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!

Distance equals rate times time.

Note that 20 minutes is hour.

Let represent the distance traveled, and let represent the time it took Fred to travel the distance at 15 mph. Note that it must then have taken Tom hours to complete the trip.

From the above information we can say:

or

Since , we can write:

Solve for which will be in hours. Then calculate to get Tom's total time. If you want to express Tom's time in minutes, it might help to know that one-sixth of an hour is 10 minutes.

Then multiply 15 times t to get the distance. Multiply 9 times to check your work.

John

Egw to Beta kai to Sigma
My calculator said it, I believe it, that settles it