Applying Rates of Change

Question

Marco rides his bike home from the library. After 12 minutes, Marco is 2 miles from home. After 18 minutes, he is 1 mile from home. What is the total distance, in miles, of the bike ride?

Answer 1

I don't know the best way to set this up - but we can measure the change in minutes to the change in miles.

 

(18 - 12) / (2 - 1)  =  6/1   So, in 6 minutes Marco covers 1 mile.

 

Marco has one more mile to get home, so 18 + 6 = 24 minutes total to get home.

24 minutes divided by 6 minutes per mile is 4 miles total.