Jan and Carol are competing in the 500m Freestyle swimming competition. In this event, swimmers make 10 laps in a 50 meter pool. Carol finished the race in 2 minutes, 40 seconds and swam 1/4 m per second faster than Jan. What was Jan's time?

Question

Jan and Carol are competing in the 500m Freestyle swimming competition. In this event, swimmers make 10 laps in a 50 meter pool. Carol finished the race in 2 minutes, 40 seconds and swam 1/4 m per second faster than Jan. What was Jan's time?

Answer 1

Let j be Jan's time.

Use the formula d = r * t (distance = rate times time).

Answer 2

still lost

Answer 3

Interesting result

I used to coach swimming and have never heard of a 500 m race.
There is a 400 m and a 800 m freestyle.
As of Dec 3/07 the world record in the 400 m men's freestyle was still held by
Ian Thorpe, AUS in a time of 3:40.08

So Carol did 500 m in 2:40 !!! WOW

Be that as it may, ...
Carol swam 500 m in 160 seconds, so she swam at a rate of 500/160 m/sec or 3.125 m/sec.
So Jan swam 1/4 or .124 m/sec slower, so she swam at 3 m/sec

time = dist/rate
= 500/3 sec
= 166.667 sec
= 2 min, 47 sec (2:47)

Answer 4

I understand the 3.125 m/sec, but I am not sure how you got .124 m/sec

Answer 5

My error Terri, 1/4 of course is .25 not .124

so let's pick it up at..

So Jan swam 1/4 or ..25 m/sec slower, so she swam at 2.875 m/sec (3.125 -.25)

time = dist/rate
= 500/2.875 sec
= 173.913 sec
= 2 min, 53.9 sec (2:53.9)

Answer 6

Thanks for your help!

Answer 7

To find Jan's time, we need to determine the speed at which Carol swam the race and then subtract 1/4 m/s to find Jan's speed. Then we can calculate Jan's time.

Let's start by converting Carol's time into seconds:
2 minutes = 2 * 60 = 120 seconds
Total time = 120 seconds + 40 seconds = 160 seconds

Next, we need to determine Carol's speed. The distance swum is equal to 10 laps * 50 meters per lap = 500 meters.

To find the speed, we divide the distance by the time:
Speed = Distance / Time
Speed = 500 meters / 160 seconds = 3.125 meters per second

Since Carol is swimming 1/4 m/s faster than Jan, to find Jan's speed, we subtract 1/4 m/s from Carol's speed:
Jan's speed = 3.125 m/s - 1/4 m/s = 3.125 m/s - 0.25 m/s = 2.875 m/s

Now we can calculate Jan's time by dividing the distance by Jan's speed:
Jan's time = Distance / Speed
Jan's time = 500 meters / 2.875 m/s

Dividing these numbers gives us:
Jan's time = 173.91 seconds

Therefore, Jan's time in the 500m Freestyle swimming competition is approximately 2 minutes and 53.91 seconds.