Question

Andrew participates in a 100-meter freestyle event at an international swimming competition. One lap of the race is 60 meters. Andrew swims 5/12 of a lap in 1/4 of a minute. Andrew's unit rate for swimming is what laps per minute.

Answer 1

Andrew swims 5/12 of a lap in 1/4 of a minute. And we need to find the rate he swims in laps per minute.

So, we have the following proportion:

number of laps number of minutes

5/12 1/4

x 1

Now, we can solve for x (the rate of laps per minute) by cross multiplying the above values. We obtain:

`(1)/(4)\cdot x=1\cdot(5)/(12)`

Now, we can isolate x on the left side to find its value by multiplying both sides of the above equation by 4. We obtain:

`\begin{gathered} 4\cdot(1)/(4)\cdot x=4\cdot1\cdot(5)/(12) \\ \\ x=(4)/(12)\cdot5 \\ \\ x=(1)/(3)\cdot5 \\ \\ x=(5)/(3) \end{gathered}`

Therefore, Andrew's unit rate for swimming is:

`\mathbf{(5)/(3)}\text{\textbf{ laps per minute}}`