Question

Maria drove to a business appointment at 50mph in the morning. Her average speed on the return trip in the afternoon was 40 mph. The return trip took 1/4hr longer because of traffic. How far did she travel to the appointment?

Answer 1

Distance to appointment point = 5 miles

Explanation:

Let s be the distance to the appointment point,

We have Maria drove to a business appointment at 50mph in the morning.

Time taken in the morning

`t_m=(s)/(50)=0.02s`

Her average speed on the return trip in the afternoon was 40 mph.

Time taken in the afternoon

`t_a=(s)/(40)=0.025s`

Given that the return trip took 1/4hr longer because of traffic.

That is

`t_a-t_m=(1)/(4)hr=0.025hr`

Substituting

`t_a-t_m=0.025hr\\\\0.025s-0.02s=0.025\\\\s=5miles`

Distance to appointment point = 5 miles