word problem--If car A is going 50mph and is 15miles ahead of car B who is going 60mph, how long will it take car B to catch up with other?
50x+15=60
-15=15
50x=45
x=10
-
You don't define what your x is, so your equation makes no sense to me.
The left side of your equation has units of distance, while your right side is speed, thus it is gibberish.
If x is the time needed
the distance covered by the slower car = 15 + 50x
the distance covered by the faster car = 60x
So
60x = 50x + 15
10x = 15
x = 1.5 hours.
check:
slower car went 15 + 1.5(5) = 90 miles
faster car went 1.5(60) = 90 miles
well, how about that , the went the same distance !
so it would take over an hour for car b to catch up with car a.
the choices given on the study guide are 10 min, 15 min, 40 min, 60 min or none of these
well, I guess you know which is the correct choice, eh?
consider it this way. car A is 15 miles ahead when car B starts. B is only going 10 mi/hr faster than A, so it will take 15/10 hours to make up the difference. As Reiny showed, that means it takes 1.5 hours.
To solve this word problem, we can set up a distance equation. Let's represent the time it takes for Car B to catch up with Car A as "x".
Car A is going at a speed of 50 mph and has a 15-mile head start. So, the distance covered by Car A is given by the equation 50x + 15.
Car B is going at a speed of 60 mph. So, the distance covered by Car B is given by the equation 60x.
Since Car B is catching up with Car A, these two distances will be equal.
Therefore, we can set up the equation:
50x + 15 = 60x
Now, let's solve the equation to find the value of x:
50x - 60x = -15
-10x = -15
Now, divide both sides of the equation by -10:
x = -15 / -10
Simplifying the division:
x = 1.5
So, it will take Car B 1.5 hours (or 1 hour and 30 minutes) to catch up with Car A.