Boats, trains, bicycles, canoes, jets, everything moving in all different directions.

Who will get there first? How far apart will they be after a given amount of time? When will one overtake the other?

ALGEBRA can answer all of these motion questions and many more.

Let's try one: ..........

EX1:
Andreana and Heather are driving their tractors as fast as they can in OPPOSITE directions.

Now Andreana is driving a green, John Deere tractor at a whopping 36 miles per hour. Her friend Heather is racing away from her on a red International tractor at 24 miles per hour.

How many hours will it be before they are 30 miles apart?

SOLUTION:

EX2:
Tom and Joe are racing towards each other in a deadly game of "chicken". Each boy is riding in a plastic canoe. They are at the local YMCA pool and are starting at a distance of 100 feet apart.

Tom is able to paddle at a speed of 4 feet per second. Joe is able to crank out a top speed of 6 feet per second.
..................................

How many seconds will pass before they either CRASH or CHICKEN out?

SOLUTION:

EX3:
Lara and her mom have had a fight. Lara knows if she stays in the house much longer she will say something she shouldn't. So she jumps into her red Mustang convertible and drives off going west at a speed of 40 miles per hour.

Now 2 hours later, Lara's mom decides she had better go after her daughter and smooth things out. So she jumps into her maroon Porsche and takes off at speed of 90 miles per hour.

How long after Lara left will it be when her mom catches her?

SOLUTION:

NOW YOU TRY ONE:

Sammy the snail starts at the sewer drain and begins slithering his way across a parking lot. Sammy knows his chances of survival in the parking lot depend on a top speed of slithering. He is traveling as fast as he can at a speed of 2 feet per minute.

Now 30 minutes later,starting from the same sewer opening and going in the OPPOSITE direction, our friend Freddy the frog begins hopping across the same parking lot.

He is hopping along at a rate of 50 feet per minute. How many minutes after Freddy starts will the two be 424 feet apart?

*hint:
Let the amount of time Freddy hops = "x".
That means the amount of time old Sammy slithers will be "x+30".

CHECK your answer by clicking HERE.

ANSWER:

50x + 2(x+30) = 424

50x + 2x + 60 = 424

52x = 364

x = 7 minutes

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