Two bank robbers flee at 60 mph. 26 minutes later, a police helicopter follows at 120mph. How long til they catch them?
I figured 39 minutes. I takes the police 13 minutes to get to the 26 mile mark. Then the robbers move 13 miles forward. then the police take 6.5 minutes to go that far.please help!
You are correct as far as you got.
By the time the police get started, the robbers are 13 miles ahead.
The police are going 60 mi/hr faster than the crooks. So, you can think of the problem as the same thing as
the robbers are standing still 13 miles ahead, and the police are going 60 mi/hr. How long does it take them to get there? Another 13 minutes is all!
If you are a mile ahead of me, and I'm going 1 mi/hr faster than you are, it doesn't really matter how fast the speeds are, just that I have to make up distance of 1 mile, going 1 mi/hr faster than you. It will take me an hour, no matter how fast we are going.
To solve this question, we need to determine how long it takes for the police helicopter to catch up to the bank robbers. Let's break down the steps to find the answer:
1. Convert the 26 minutes to hours: Since the robbers start their getaway 26 minutes before the police helicopter, we need to convert this time to hours. Since there are 60 minutes in an hour, divide 26 by 60 to get 0.43 hours.
2. Calculate the distance the robbers traveled during 26 minutes: Since the robbers are traveling at a speed of 60 mph, multiply 60 by 0.43 to get 25.8 miles. This is the distance covered by the robbers in the 26 minutes.
3. Determine the catch-up speed of the police helicopter: The police helicopter is traveling at a speed of 120 mph.
4. Calculate the time required for the police helicopter to cover the distance traveled by the robbers: To calculate the time it takes for the police to catch up to the robbers, divide the distance traveled by the robbers (25.8 miles) by the speed of the police helicopter (120 mph). This gives us approximately 0.215 hours (or 12.9 minutes).
Therefore, it will take approximately 12.9 minutes (or 13 minutes, rounded up) for the police helicopter to catch up to the bank robbers.