<PRE><B>Question 696486</B>
 A man drove his car 132 miles before the water pump broke.
 Then the car was pushed 1 mile to a gas station.
 THe man could drive the car 12 times faster than it could be pushed.
 If the total trip took 3 hours, find how fast the car was pushed.
:
let r = the speed the car can be pushed
then
12r = the speed the car is driven
:
Write a time equation; time = dist/rate (t = d/r)
:
Drive time + push time = 3 hrs
{{{132/(12r)}}} + {{{1/r}}} = 3
multiply by 12r to clear the denominators, results:
132 + 12(1) = 12r(3) 
144 = 36r
r = 144/36
r = 4 mph is the pushing speed
:
:
See if that checks out; find the time of each
Drove:132/(12*4) = 2.75 hrs
Pushed: 1/4 = .25 hrs
-----------------------
total time = 3 hrs
:
:
Did all this make sense to you?</PRE>