Question

I understand that this should be really simple but I don't understand how to do this. Could someone please explain? Thank you.

A van will drive ten miles north, 15 miles south, and then five miles north again. The van gets 33 miles per gallon, and there is one gallon of gas left in the tank. Compute the relative distance and the total distance. Then decide if there is enough fuel for the trip.

Answer 1

okay maybe i'm wrong but wouldt you just add together the distances?

Answer 2

yep then see if thats less than 33 miles

Answer 3

well that was easy :D

Answer 4

of course "relative distance" means distance from your start to where you end up

Answer 5

oh lol

Answer 6

i just did the obvious

Answer 7

Sorry. I left out details. I am supposed to write equations for this.

This is what I'm supposed to do. I guess it would help if I included this lol

write two equations for each scenario. One equation should be to compute the relative distance. The other equation should be to compute the total distance traveled for the same scenario using absolute value. Finally, given the information about the fuel economy, or the miles per gallon (mpg) for each car, calculate whether or not you have enough fuel for each trip.

Answer 8

I don't know how to order the equations, otherwise I could solve this

Answer 9

not sure what equations they are looking for.

you are just summing up the numbers
north implies positive
south implies negative

relative --> sum (x)
total --> sum (|x|)