Alice walking rate is2.5 meters per second and Mack walks 1 meter per second. Mack gets a 45 meter head start in a 100 meter race. What happens in re race?

Question

Use tables,equations or graphs

Answer 1

There's a way to reason this out with words...

 

Mack gets a 45-meter head start, so he has to walk 55 meters (100 - 45).  Since his rate is 1 meter per second, that will take him 55 seconds to get to the finish line.

 

Alice has to walk the full 100 meters.  At her rate of 2.5 meters per second, it will take her 100 / 2.5 = 40 seconds to get to the finish line.

 

Since they start at the same time, Alice will get there 15 seconds sooner than Mack.

 

Since Mack walks at 1 meter per second, that means that Mack would be 15 meters away from the finish line when Alice crosses it.