Final answer:
The police chased the suspects for approximately 58 minutes, calculated by dividing the distance covered, 82.3 miles, by the police car's speed of 85 mi/hr and converting the result from hours to minutes.
Step-by-step explanation:
To calculate the duration of the police chase, you can use the formula for time, which is derived from the basic formula of speed as distance traveled divided by time. The formula we use here is time = distance / speed.
The chase covered 82.3 miles of roadway, and the police car traveled at a speed of 85 mi/hr. To find out how long the police were chasing the suspects, divide the distance by the speed:
time = 82.3 miles / 85 mi/hr
Upon calculating, we find:
time = 0.9676 hours
To convert hours into minutes, multiply by 60 (since there are 60 minutes in an hour):
time = 0.9676 hours × 60 minutes/hour = 58.056 minutes,
which can be rounded to approximately 58 minutes. Therefore, the police chased the suspects for roughly 58 minutes.