Who is asking: Student
Level: Middle

Question:
THE 1996 OLYMPIC GOLD METAL WINNER FOR THE 20 KILOMETER WALK WAS JEFERSON. HIS TIME WAS 1HOUR, 20 MIN,AND 7SECONDS. HIS TIME WAS NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO BEAT THE WINNER IN 1988 BY JOSEF. HIS TIME WAS 1 HOUR,19 MIN, 57 SECONDS. WHAT WAS THE WALKING RATE OF EACH PERSON?

Hi,

You haven't said what units you want for the walking rate so I am going to use kilometers per hour, that is kilometers divided by hours. They both walked 20 kilometers so so what remains is to put the time in hours and then divide.

Jefferson took 1 hour, 20 minutes and 7 seconds. There are 60 minutes in an hour so 20 minutes is  20/60 = 1/3 hours. There are 60 seconds in a minute and hence 60 x 60 = 3600  seconds in an hour. Thus 7 seconds is  7/3600 hours. Hence 1 hour, 20 minutes and 7 seconds is

1 + 1/3 + 7/3600  = 1.3353 hours. thus Jefferson's walking rate is  20/1.3353 = 14.98 kilometers per hour.

What is Josef's rate?

Penny

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