Question

You are hiking in an area with steep trails. It takes you twice as long to hike uphill as it takes you to hike downhill. When you get to the bottom of the trail, you take a 30-minute break. On your way back up the trail, you take a 15-minute break. Write an expression for the total time of your hike in hours. Explain what the terms represent in the expression.

Answer 1

The total time spent will be:

(t + 1/2)hrs + (2t + 1/4)hrs = (3t + 3/4)hrs.

Explanation:

Let the time it takes to hike downhill be represented by t in hrs.

This implies that the time it takes to hike uphill will be 2t, as stated in the question.

Since, a 30-minute break, which is 1/2hrs, was taken to hike downhill, then the total time spent for hiking downhill will be (t + 1/2)hrs.

Also, since a 15-minute, which 1/4hrs, was taken to hike uphill, then the total time spent for hiking uphill will be (2t + 1/4)hrs.

Therefore, the total time spent will be:

(t + 1/2)hrs + (2t + 1/4)hrs = (3t + 3/4)hrs.