Question

lya took one hour to drive from his apartment to Philips Arena and back. The return drive took 8 minutes less than the trip to the arena. If x represents the time it took Ilya to drive from his apartment to the arena, which equation would you use to determine how long he drove each way?

Answer 1

An hour is 60 minutes.

The trip to the arena + The return drive = 60 mintues.

Since the return drive is 8 minutes shorter, if you added 8 minutes it would be the same length as the trip to the arena.

The return drive + 8 minutes = The trip to the arena

Let's represent these two equations with variables.

x + r = 60
r + 8 = x

What we do now is use substitution. Since r + 8 = x, we can replace x from the first equation with r + 8.

x + r = 60
r + 8 + r = 60
2r + 8 = 60
2r = 52
r = 26

Then use r in an earlier equation to find a.

r + 8 = x
26 + 8 = x
x = 34

Answer 2

2x - 8 = 60

Explanation:

Since the return trip took 8 minutes less, the entire equation will need to be written in minutes. x - 8 represents the time it took to return to Philips Arena. The whole trip took 60 minutes and includes both directions so add x and x - 8 then set them equal to 60. 2x - 8 = 60