Question 629556
You said the second car is headed west. You did not say which direction the first car is headed.


If both cars are headed west, they separate at 30 mph; so the time to separate 1200 miles would be 30 * (h) = 1200, where h is the elapsed time in hours. Solving for h we find it takes 40 hours.


If the first car is headed East and the second car is headed West, we don't know the speed of either car. Assuming car two travels at x and car one travels at x+30; then the equation becomes (x + (x+30)) * h = 1200. Solving for h we find h = 1200/(x+(x+30)).


If they are driving in other directions (say north and west), this becomes a more complicated problem.