Question

Think about a kayaking race, a round trip airplane flight, a shopper on an escalator, or a swimming competition.

Choose an activity where a rational expression can represent the total or difference of time. For example, what is the time to go round trip on a hot air balloon ride?

Use full sentences to describe the real world situation. Write the addition or subtraction rational expression to represent your situation. Simplify the expression, showing all the work or explaining the steps using complete sentences.

Answer 1

Suppose I'm in a swimming competition. The competition consists of 5 laps. The competition began sometime back, and I've completed 2 laps. So how much of the race I've completed. Out of 5 laps, I've completed 2 laps so I've completed 2/5th of the race.
Supposedly I've completed x laps!!! and I know 1/5 th race is remaining, so With x laps, fraction of race completed
x5
Full Race corresponds to 1
so
1−x5=15
This can be used to evaluate the no. of laps completed in the competition