many american cars feture speedometers that show kilometers per hour. If you are required to drive 55 miles and you know that one kilometer is approximately 5/8 of a mile, how many kilometers would you cover in that journey? 800 but how and why?

Question

many american cars feture speedometers that show kilometers per hour. If you are required to drive 55 miles and you know that one kilometer is approximately 5/8 of a mile, how many kilometers would you cover in that journey? 800 but how and why?

nevermind. I just got it right now. 5/8 * 1/100 right? =800

Settin up simple ratios is often the best way to solve these kind of problems

5 miles = 8 km
so 55 miles = x km
5/55 = 8/x
5x=440
x=88 km

(800 km is clearly a ridiculous answer)

You can set up a proportion like this, with x representing the kilometers:
5 / 8 = 55 / x

As you see, it's a much smaller number than 800.

but that the answer on my math book. the choices are 625,800,850,1000. my math book is not wrong

why 55? i don't get it?

sorry i meant 500 miles

OK. 500 miles = 800 kilometers

Thank you for using the Jiskha Homework Help Forum. You might like to save the following link with conversions. Just enter 55 miles and see what you get!

http://www.allchin.net/converter/basicmulti.html

Answer 1

To solve this problem, you need to use the conversion factor of 5/8 mile per kilometer.

Since you are required to drive 55 miles and you want to know the equivalent value in kilometers, you can set up a proportion:

5/8 mile = 1 kilometer
55 miles = x kilometers

This can be written as:

5/8 = 55/x

To solve for x, you can cross-multiply:

5x = 55 * 8
5x = 440

Divide both sides by 5:

x = 440/5
x = 88

Therefore, you would cover 88 kilometers in that journey.

Note: The answer of 800 kilometers is incorrect because the conversion factor is 5/8 mile per kilometer, not the other way around. The answer choices of 625, 800, 850, and 1000 are possibly for a different question or may be incorrect in relation to the given information. It's important to double-check the information and conversion factor provided in the question.

Answer 2

I apologize for the confusion in my previous response. If the distance you need to drive is actually 500 miles, and you know that one kilometer is approximately 5/8 of a mile, you can set up a proportion to find the number of kilometers you would cover.

Let x represent the number of kilometers:

5/8 = 500 / x

To solve for x, cross-multiply:

5x = 8 * 500

5x = 4000

Divide both sides by 5:

x = 800

Therefore, if you drive 500 miles, you would cover approximately 800 kilometers.