Question

A van full of storm chasers is driving along a straight road at 51 miles per hour in hopes of filming a tornado. The tornado, 6 miles away, is traveling along the same road and moving directly towards them, traveling at 41 miles per hour. If neither the van nor the tornado changes course, how long will it be before they meet?

Answer 1

To find the time before a van and a tornado meet, add their speeds to get the relative speed of approach and then divide the distance by this speed. It will take approximately 3.9 minutes for them to meet.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student's question involves calculating the time it will take for a van and a tornado to meet if they are traveling towards each other. We can find this by using the formula Speed equals distance divided by time. The van is traveling at 51 miles per hour and the tornado is moving at 41 miles per hour. Since they are moving towards each other, we can add their speeds to get the relative speed of approach, which is 51 mph + 41 mph = 92 mph. The distance between them is 6 miles.

Now, we use the formula to find the time: Time = Distance / Speed. Plugging in the values, we get Time = 6 miles / 92 mph. By calculating this, we find that the time before they meet is approximately 0.0652 hours, which is about 3.9 minutes.