SOLUTION: Tom and John are speed skaters. Tom skates at a rate of 44 ft/sec and John skates at a rate of 50 ft/sec. If John is 120 ft behind of Tom when they start speed skating, how long wi

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Question 1033432: Tom and John are speed skaters. Tom skates at a rate of 44 ft/sec and John skates at a rate of 50 ft/sec. If John is 120 ft behind of Tom when they start speed skating, how long will it take John to catch up to Tom?
Found 3 solutions by jorel555, Alan3354, ikleyn:
Answer by jorel555(1290)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let t= time between them; then
44t+120=50t
6t=120
t=6 seconds before John catches up to Tom!!!!!!

Answer by Alan3354(69443)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Depends on their directions.

Answer by ikleyn(52835)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.
Tom and John are speed skaters. Tom skates at a rate of 44 ft/sec and John skates at a rate of 50 ft/sec.
If John is 120 ft behind of Tom when they start speed skating, how long will it take John to catch up to Tom?
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This way:

Let t = time to catch up; then 44t + 120 = 50t 6t=120 t= = 20 seconds before John catches up to Tom.

Or this way:

t = = = 20 seconds. The numerator is the initial distance between them, while the denominator is a relative speed.

For details, see a similar solved problem in the lesson Travel and Distance problems in this site.