SOLUTION: One car is going East and is going 10 miles per hr more than a car going west. The distance between their starting points is 184 miles. If they meet in 1 hour and 36 minutes, what
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Question 458273: One car is going East and is going 10 miles per hr more than a car going west. The distance between their starting points is 184 miles. If they meet in 1 hour and 36 minutes, what is the speed of the two cars. Found 2 solutions by solver91311, oberobic:Answer by solver91311(24713) (Show Source):
Since 6 minutes is 1/10 hour, 1 hour and 36 minutes must be 1.6 hours. One car is travelling miles per hour, and the other car is travelling miles per hour. Since they are headed directly toward one another, they are approaching each other at a speed of . And the distance is 184 miles. So using distance equals rate times time:
Solve for . Then calculate
John
My calculator said it, I believe it, that settles it
You can put this solution on YOUR website! s = speed of car going west
s+10 = speed of the car going east
t = 1 hr 36 min
t = 1.6 hr
d = 184 miles between the two cars
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But they do not travel 184 miles each. They meet somewhere in the middle, but not exactly in the middle because they are going different speeds. However, their combined distance traveled = 184.
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1.6s + 1.6*(s+10) = 184
3.2s +16 = 184
3.2s = 168
s = 52.5 is the speed of the car going west
s+10 = 62.5 is the speed of the car going east
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Always check your work.
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In this case we have to check how far they travel to check these values.
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1.6 hr * 62.5 mph = 100 miles
1.6 hr * 52.5 mph = 84 miles
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So, the speeds of the two cars are 62.5 and 52.5 mph.
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Done.
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