Two cars meeting
Algebra
Level
1
2 cars are 720 miles apart and traveling toward each other. The first car is going 50 mph, and the second is going 70 mph. How many hours will it be before the 2 meet?
The answer is 6.
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1 solution
We're trying to find the number of hours so that's x. Then we can draw a picture of it like this:
So put it all down like this:
720 miles apart
Car #1 dist=50
Car #2 dist=70
x=time in hours
Then, we put it down. Car #1's distance + car #2's distance must equal 720.
So we put it all down like this (Those x's look a bit weird, but whatever)
5 0 x + 7 0 x = 7 2 0
Which is equal to:
1 2 0 x = 7 2 0
So then we divide 120 from both sides:
1 2 0 1 2 0 x = 1 2 0 7 2 0
Beacuse remember "The Golden Rule of Algebra": when dividing one side of the equation, you must divide the other side by the same number .
So the left side equals x, and the right equals 6. So we are left with x = 6 as the answer to this problem.