Two sports cars are 675 miles apart and traveling toward each other. The first is going 65 mph and the second is going 85 mph. How many hours will it be -

Question

- before the two cars meet? Write your answer a a decimal.  Please Help!!

Answer 1

Let's say the distance traveled by car 1 is x miles. Then, the distance traveled by car 2 is (675 - x) miles. We know that distance =  rate x time. We are given the rates of car 1 and car 2 as 65 mph and 85 mph, respectively. The time, though unknown, is the same for both cars. We can use the variable t to represent this quantity. We now have the following equations for the two cars:

 

x = 65t

 

675 - x = 85t

 

Let's use the Substitution Method to solve this system of equations. We can substitute the value of 65t for every instance of x in the second equation.

 

675 - 65t = 85t

 

675 = 150t

 

t = 4.5

 

It will be 4.5 hours before the two cars meet.