Alan and Victoria are 210 feet apart when they start walking toward one another.

Question

Alan and Victoria are 210 feet apart when they start walking toward one another. They are walking at the same speed, so whenever Alan travels some number of feet, Victoria travels the same number of feet. Let  represent the number of feet Alan has traveled since he started walking toward Victoria.

Write an expression in terms of that represents the total

 number of feet Alan and Victoria have walked toward one another since they started walking

Write an expression in terms of  that represents the distance (in feet) between Alan and Victoria.

Answer 1

"Alan and Victoria are 210 feet apart when they start walking toward one another. They are walking at the same speed, so whenever Alan travels some number of feet, Victoria travels the same number of feet. Let x represent the number of feet Alan has traveled since he started walking toward Victoria."

A) So, if x represents "the number of feet Alan has traveled since he started walking toward Victoria", the total number of feet traveled by the 2 walkers must be 2x".

B) And the distance (in feet) between Alan and Victoria must be 210 - 2x.

Given the wording of the problem, I think it's just that simple.

Answer 2

So if Alan and Victoria are walking at the same speed, lets call that speed s

the total distance that Alan or Victoria has walked is equal to s*x ft (x = time since they started walking)

so the total distance they have walked would be s*x ft + s*x ft, or 2sx ft

The distance they start out at is 210ft, to the distance between them is = 210 - 2sx ft