This question is not limited to any particular method; all methods accepted. This is a homework question, stated exactly as:
A cyclist starts off in a bike at an average speed of 16 km/h. 15 minutes later, a motorcyclist sets off on the same trail with an average speed of 48 km/h. How many minutes (in total) will the cyclist have ridden when he gets overtaken by the motorcycle?
I tried to form 2 simultaneous equations for the speed and distance of both but failed. Any help??
EDIT
Thanks for the retag, and you asked to me to show my working out. Knowing that the the first guy crossed d kilos in 15 minutes, we can work that out as 4. Now for the second guy, he would cross those 4 in only 5 minutes. So I tried to plot a linear relationship for each guy and solve for an intersection point, but since they both start at the origin (do they???) The only intersection is (0, 0). And if I try to start off guy#2 at 15 minutes, the intersection point is 30. The answer at the back of the book says 22.5
Answer
The speed of the cyclist is 16km/h. You do not know how long it will have been traveling when it is overtaken, so we will just call that time $t$. Because the cyclist has a quarter-hour head start, the time it will have been traveling when it is overtaken will be $t + 0.25$. Distance is speed multiplied by time, and so will be written as $16(t + 0.25)$.
The speed of the motorcyclist is 48/h. Like with the cyclist, the time is unknown. However, since you know that they will pass each other at the same time, the time will be the same, and will therefore be represented by the same $t$. Therefore, the distance the motorcyclist will have traveled will be written as 48t.
You want to find the time when they pass each other, aka when their distances are equal, so put it all in a simultaneous equation. $$16(t+0.25) = 48t$$
This simplifies to $t = 0.125$. Add on the quarter hour head start to get 22.5 minutes.
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