Two cars leave towns 300 kilometers apart at the same time and travel toward each other. One car's rate is 16 kilometers per hour more than the other's. If they meet in 2 hours, what is the rate of the faster car?

Question

Two cars leave towns 300  kilometers apart at the same time and travel toward each other. One car's rate is 16 kilometers per hour more than the other's. If they meet in 2 hours, what is the rate of the faster car?

snowfire · Answer

I'm assuming this doesn't consider relativity correct? What you can do is set up an equation so that after two hours, you get the distance of 300km. You have two cars, and together they cover that 300km in two hours (since they both meet up in that time, you know that if you added their individual distances you would get 300km). So now I want you to tell me what the equation is, and as a hint, you will add both cars' speeds together, and both should be defined in terms of the same variable.

thejax · Answer

Its veyron... I am joking .. so here we go..
One car's rate is 20 kilometers per hour more than the other's.

Let x and (x+20)represent the rates of the two vehicles respectively

Question states***


 


Two cars leave towns 480 kilometers apart at the same time and 

travel toward each other, meeting in 3hrs.  D = r*t

 3x + 3(x+20) = 480

    6x = 420

     x = 70kmph.  the rate of the faster car is 90kmph




 3hr*70kmph + 3hr*90kmph = 210km + 270km = 480km

thejax · Answer

http://www.algebra.com/algebra/homework/word/travel/Travel_Word_Problems.faq.question.433151.html

snowfire · Answer

One more hint, you can make the problem simpler by dividing both the time and distance by 2, so in one hour the cars meet after starting 150km away.

snowfire · Answer

Does any of that make sense?