Question

Max and Sven bike away from home in the same direction starting at noon. They bike at constant speeds. Max bikes at xmph and he is ymph faster than Sven. By 4pm, how far ahead of Sven would Max be?

Answer 1

Max would be 4y meters ahead by 4pm

Explanation:

What we want to calculate here is the difference in the distance they have covered by 4pm given the speed at which they traveled.

Mathematically, distance = speed * time

The time is just the difference between 12 noon and 4pm which is 4 hours

Let’s tackle Max’s

He’s biking at x km/h, so the distance he would have covered by 4pm would be 4 * x = 4x meters

Now let’s tackle Sven

Sven is biking at a speed which is y mph less than Max’s x mph

Thus his speed would be (x-y) mph

His distance covered would be 4(x-y) meters

Now the difference between their bikes distance at 4pm would be;

4x - [4(x-y)]

= 4x -(4x -4y)

4x -4x + 4y

= 4y

Hence, Max would be 4y meters ahead by 4pm