Question

The temperature in your town is 65 degrees and is rising 3 degrees every hour. Your friend lives far away; the temperature in his town is 86 degrees and is falling 4 degrees every hour. In how many hours will the temperature be equal?

a. 7 hours
b. 8 hours
c. 9 hours
d. 10 hours

Answer 1

To find when the temperature in both towns will be equal, we set up an equation based on temperature changes and solve for time, resulting in 3 hours until the temperatures are the same.

Step-by-step explanation:

We need to determine after how many hours the temperature in both towns will be equal. Let's denote t as the number of hours it will take for the temperatures in both towns to be equal.

For the student's town, the equation based on the temperature increase is:

65 + 3t

For the friend's town, the temperature decreases by 4 degrees every hour, thus the equation is:

86 - 4t

We set these two expressions equal to each other to find when the temperatures are the same:

65 + 3t = 86 - 4t

Combining like terms, we get:

3t + 4t = 86 - 65

7t = 21

Now, divide both sides by 7 to solve for t:

t = 21 / 7

t = 3

So, in 3 hours, the temperatures in both towns will be equal.