Question

If a train leaves New York City at 2:00 PM traveling west at 60 miles per hour, and another train leaves Los Angeles at 4:00 PM traveling east at 80 miles per hour, which train will be closer to Chicago, which is halfway between New York City and Los Angeles?

Answer 1

the answer is three o'clock PM

Answer 2

3:00 p.m.

Step-by-step explanation:

Since we are just talking about distance from Chicago it doesn't matter what direction they are going.

What does matter is the speed of each train and the head start the first train had.

The first train's distance can be represented with the equation:

60 + 60 x because it has an hour head start where it travelled 60 miles in that time.

The second train's distance can be represented with the equation:

80 x because each hour it travels 80 miles.

In both equations x represents the number of hours.

If we set these two equations equal to each other we get:

60 + 60 x = 80 x

Combine like terms:

60 = 20 x

Divide both sides by 20:

x = 3

So at 3:00 p.m. the two trains will both be the same distance from Chicago (240 miles).