166k views
5 votes
You have been traveling for several hours, and you notice that your car's 14-gallon fuel tank is halfway empty. If your car is averaging 50 miles per hour, how many more miles can you travel?

a) 350 miles
b) 420 miles
c) 490 miles
d) 560 miles

User Ken Gentle
by
9.0k points

1 Answer

5 votes

Final answer:

Without the car's MPG, the exact number of miles cannot be determined; however, if the car traveled at an average of 50 miles per hour and used half of its 14-gallon tank, it means you can likely travel the same distance again with the remaining fuel until the tank is empty.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate how many more miles you can travel given that your car's fuel tank is halfway empty, we need to determine the car's fuel efficiency and how many gallons are left in the tank. As the tank is 14 gallons and halfway empty, there are 7 gallons of fuel remaining. To find out how many miles you can still travel, multiply the remaining gallons by the car's average miles per gallon (MPG).

Since we don't have the car's MPG, we can't calculate the exact number of remaining miles. However, assuming the car gets the same MPG as the average distance covered, we can use the data from the question to make an estimate. If the car has been traveling for several hours at an average of 50 miles per hour and is now half empty, it suggests that the fuel efficiency is such that 7 gallons have been used to maintain that speed for the duration. To find out how many more miles you can travel, you would simply travel at the same speed until the tank is empty, which is also for the same duration as it has taken to reach the halfway point of the tank.

Therefore, if it took several hours to use half the tank at a constant rate of 50 miles per hour, the same number of hours of travel would be available with the remaining fuel, giving us the same distance covered again. Thus, if no MPG is given but the car has been traveling steadily, it would be able to continue for a similar range, which would be the distance it covered while using the first half of the fuel tank.

User Velis
by
6.8k points