A freight train leaves New York at 2pm headed to NYC at 40 mph. Two hours later a passenger train leaves the same station for NYC at 60 mph. How long will it take the Passenger train to catch up to the freight train?
Can someone please help?
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
Since we are just talking about distance from nyc it doesn't matter what direction they are going.
What does matter is the speed of each train and the head start the first train had.
The first train's distance can be represented with the equation:
60
+
60
x
because it has an hour head start where it travelled 60 miles in that time.
The second train's distance can be represented with the equation:
80
x
because each hour it travels 80 miles.
In both equations
x
represents the number of hours.
If we set these two equations equal to each other we get:
60
+
60
x
=
80
x
Combine like terms:
60
=
20
x
Divide both sides by
20
:
x
=
3
So at 3:00 p.m. the two trains will both be the same distance from nyc
(240 miles).
Step-by-step explanation: