Question

The sea floor is 104 feet below sea level. Katy is 28 feet below sea level. She is moving downward at a rate of 4 feet per minute. Colin used the following calculation to determine how long it will take Katy to reach the sea floor. Is he correct? Explain.

Answer 1

Explanation:

No, Colin is not correct. He needs to subtract first to get the total distance and then divide by the rate. He should have put parentheses around 104–28 and then divided by 4 to get the answer of 19 minutes.

Answer 2

19 minutes

Explanation:

Taking the sea level as the reference point, the values of depths to be considered can be determined as follows;

Total depth from sea level to the sea floor = 104 feet

Katy's depth from the sea level (depth covered) = 28 feet

Katy's distance to the sea floor = 104 - 28

= 76 feet

Katy's distance to the sea floor = 76 feet

But Katy moves at a rate/ speed of 4 feet per minute;

So that,

speed =
`(distance)/(time)`

time =
`(distance )/(speed)`

=
`(76)/(4)`

= 19

time = 19 minutes

Therefore it would take Katy 19 minutes to reach the sea floor.