A person travels by car from one city to another.

Question

She drives for 21.7 min at 77.2 km/h, 10.6 min at 106 km/h, 46 min at 30.1 km/h, and spends 16.4 min along the way eating lunch and buying gas. Determine the distance between the cities along this route

Answer 1

Distance = rate • time; all times must be divided by 60 to get them into hours because distances are kilometers.

First leg: D₁ = 77.2(21.7)/60

Second leg: D₂ = 106(10.6)/60

Third leg: D₃ = 30.1(46)/60

 

Just calculate the above three distances and add them to get the total driving distance from the starting city to the ending city.  

 

This distance will be kilometers, the length of the chosen path.  Geographically speaking, the cities might be closer together!