SOLUTION: A girl took a trip from New York to Washington DC, a distance of 300 miles. She travealed on the train then finished her trip on the bus. The train averaged 60 miles per hour and

Algebra ->  Customizable Word Problem Solvers  -> Travel -> SOLUTION: A girl took a trip from New York to Washington DC, a distance of 300 miles. She travealed on the train then finished her trip on the bus. The train averaged 60 miles per hour and       Log On

Ad: Over 600 Algebra Word Problems at edhelper.com


    

Question 549010: A girl took a trip from New York to Washington DC, a distance of 300 miles. She travealed on the train then finished her trip on the bus. The train averaged 60 miles per hour and the bus averaged 40 miles per hour. The whole trip was 5 hours and 30 minutes. How long did the girl spend on the train?
Answer by mathie123(224) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
We can make two equations from the given question.
If we let x be the number of hours spent on the bus, and y be the number of hours spent on the train we have:
60%2Ay%2B40%2Ax=300 (1)
(Note: 60*y gives the miles that the bus travelled, similarly for the train)
x%2By=5.5 (2)
Rearrange (2) for x
x=5.5-y (3)
Substitute (3) into (1)
60%2Ay%2B40%2A%285.5-y%29=300
60%2Ay%2B220-40%2Ay=300
20%2Ay%2B220=300
20%2Ay%2B220-220=300-220
20%2Ay=80
20%2Ay%2F20=80%2F20
y=4 (4)
Substitute (4) into (3)
x=5.5-4
x=1.5
This means that she spent 1.5 hours on the bus and 4 hours on the train.