Question

A tortoise and a hare are competing in a race around a 1600-meter track. The arrogant hare decides to let the tortoise have a 780-meter head start. When the start gun is fired the hare begins running at a constant speed of 10 meters per second and the tortoise begins crawling at a constant speed of 5.3 meters per second.

Answer 1

The tortoise wins. The tortoise takes 154.7 seconds to finish the race. The hare takes 160 seconds to finish the race. There really isn't a question here, but I'm going to assume the unasked question is one of "Who wins?" "How long does it take the tortoise to complete the race?" or "How long does it take the hare to complete the race?" And thankfully, in determining the answer to "Who wins?" will have as a side effect the answers to the other two questions. First, how many seconds does it take for the hare to complete the race. Just divide the distance by the speed and you'll have the answer. So 1600 m / 10 m/s = 160 s Now, how many seconds does it take the tortoise to finish the race? Same thing. Distance divided by speed. But there's a twist, you need to figure out the distance. And that is just the track length minus the head start. So (1600 m - 780 m) / 5.3 m/s = 820 m / 5.3 m/s = 154.717 s And since the tortoise took less time than the hare, the tortoise wins.

Answer 2

I am presuming that the question is who won or by how much did the winner win.

distance equals rate times time, or d = r*t
For the Hare d = 1600 and r = 10
1600 = 10 t
Divide both sides by 10
t = 160
The hare finished in 160 seconds

For the tortoise d = 1600 - 780 = 820 (due to the head start) and r = 5.3
820= 5.3 t
Divide both sides by 5.3
t = 154.72 (rounded to the hundredths place)

The tortoise won by 5. 28 seconds (160-154.72)