34,832 views
13 votes
13 votes
Which equation models the following word problem?Isabella and Mason competed in a long distance bike race. Isabella rode 5mph faster than Mason did. It took Mason 4 hours, where it took Isabella3 hours. How fast was each of them riding?

Which equation models the following word problem?Isabella and Mason competed in a-example-1
User James Matta
by
3.0k points

1 Answer

16 votes
16 votes

(x)(4)+(x+5)(3)=Total\: distance

1) The first thing to consider when tackling this question is that we are dealing with speed. And speed can be found this way:


speed=(distance)/(time)\Leftrightarrow d=st

2) So, we can set our equation by calling x the distance. Since Mason took 4 hours and Isabella 3, we can start out writing:


\begin{gathered} dt_m+dt_I=Total\: distance \\ (x)t_M+(x+5)t_I=Total\: distance \\ (x)(4)+(x+5)(3)=Total\: distance \end{gathered}

Note that the

User Tholy
by
2.7k points