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| Math Central | Quandaries & Queries |
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Question from Jeff: A car is traveling 75 mph. It takes 12 miles to overtake a second car that was .5 mile ahead. How fast is the second car taveling? |
Hi Jeff.
Think of it this way: The first car covers 12 miles in 12/75 hours.
In that time, it goes 0.5 miles farther than the second car. So that
means it is going 0.5 / (12/75) miles per hour faster than the second car.
That leaves you to simply subtract the difference in speed from 75 in
order to get the second car's speed.
Cheers,
Stephen La Rocque
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