Question

Wendy traveled 12 miles to school in 20 minutes. What was her speed in
miles per hour?

Answer 1

36 mph.

Explanation:

Speed is a rate. It can be represented as the distance traveled/the time spent traveling.

`s=d/t`

In this problem, we know the distance and the time. All that needs to be done is some conversion and then plugging in.

In the problem, we know that Wendy travels 12 miles in 20 minutes. But to get her speed in miles per hour, we need to convert 20 minutes into hours.

To do this, let's set up a quick proportion. Let's call the number of hours in 20 minutes x.

I
`(20minutes)/(xhours)=(60 minutes)/(1 hour)`

If there are 60 minutes in an hour, then there are 20 minutes in 1/3 of an hour.

Now we can plug 1/3 hours in.

`s=(12)/(1/3)`

This is the same as saying

`s=12*3`

`s=36`