Tom and Bob start to walk towards each other at 18 feet per minute and 12 feet per minute respectively. In how many minutes will they meet if there was 570 feet between them in the beginning?

Question



Answer 1

Let's say Tom is walking 18ft per minute for x minutes and Bob is walking 12 ft per minute (also for X minutes). We will use an X to represent the length of time that they walk to meet (the unknown value.

x minutes of 18 ft/min (18x) + x minutes of 12 ft/min (12x) should have the two of them together cover the total distance between them of 570 feet.

That can be made into the equation 12x +18x= 570.

Combining like terms: 30x= 570

x= 19 they walk for 19 minutes to meet.

When doing Algebra, you can always do a quick "check" on your answer to be confident it's right.

If Bob walks 12 ft per minute for 19 minutes, he covers 228 feet

and Tom walks 18 ft per minute for 19 minutes, he covers 342 ft

Together they cover 228+ 342= 570. So, they do cover in 19 minutes, exactly the 570 feet between them. Hope that helps!