if jim rides his bike to his office, he averages 12mph. if he drives his car, he averages 36mph. his time is 1/4 hours less then his time bicyling. how far is his office?

Question

anonymous · Answer

can someone help me on this one please :(

anonymous · Answer

So if he drives he takes an X amount of hours to get there and 1/4 X if he bikes.

anonymous · Answer

Woops sorry if he bikes he takes an X amount of time but when he drives he makes 1/4 X of that time.

anonymous · Answer

so both have something in common when you drive and bike. Do you know what that is?

anonymous · Answer

Well if you cant tell its how far they travel. Regardless if you use a car or a bike you travel a Y amount

1/4 X  * 36 = Y
X   * 12 =  Y

you can do the rest. Tell me if you are still lost.

anonymous · Answer

ok so do you add like terms?

anonymous · Answer

Umm well want to know how far he travels which is Y but its really hard to do it with that X in there so what you can do is isolate X on each one and substitute

anonymous · Answer

so you will have X = whatever for equation 1 
                         X = whatever for equation 2 

and you get      
 
whatever for equation 1= whatever for equation 2

anonymous · Answer

ok... lol im sorry im just really bad at these kind of problems

anonymous · Answer

ok isolate X like I said and write it down

anonymous · Answer

so do i multiply w/ -1/4?
(the second prob.)

anonymous · Answer

.. i guess im just really confused...