Rate Of Travel Between Two Observation

Question

Suppose you are driving. You notice that after driving for 5 hours, you are 265 miles from Seattle. You continue driving, and calculate that after driving 7 hours you are 365 miles from Seattle.

What was your rate of travel between these two observations?

Answer 1

Hi, William:

Here's how to tackle this type of problem. rate of travel simply means "average speed" between the 2 places.

By definition, speed = distance / time (Be sure you know this definition!)

Or mathematically: S = D / T

The distance traveled between the 2 points is 365 - 265 = 100 miles

The time " " " " " " 7 - 5 = 2 hours.

Plug these into the the equation above: S = 10 / 2 = 50 miles/hour

Obviously, your speed could have varied during this time. So our answer is the average speed during that time.