This is science, what is the answer to this?

Question

A salesman travels to 2 customers. The first is a journey of 100 miles and takes 2 hours. He then goes to the second which is 80 miles in 1 hour. What is his average speed in mph?

Answer 1

This is actually easier than it looks!

Average speed is just the total distance divided by the total time. (Miles per hour.)

Speed = (100 + 80) / (2 + 1)

= 180 / 3

= 60

Note: You might see very similar problems about other situations. If you have enough information to calculate the total of the top and bottom parts of a rate (something divided by something else) and they ask for the average of that rate,, just add them up and divide. Rates can be miles per hour, cookies per bag, persons per vehicle, etc, etc.