Carcass wrote:
Carl drove from his home to the beach at an average speed of 80 kilometers per hour and returned home by the same route at an average speed of 70 kilometers per hour. If the trip home took 1/2 hour longer than the trip to the beach, how many kilometers did Carl drive each way?
Since the travel time going home was 0.5 hours longer than the travel time going to the beach, we can start with the following
word equation:
(travel time going home) - (travel time to beach) = 0.5Let d = the distance from home to beach
Since
time = distance/rate, we can plug in the given values to get:
(d/70) - (d/80) = 0.5To eliminate the fractions, multiply both sides of the equation by 560 to get:
8d - 7d = 280Simplify:
d = 280Answer: 280