A circular track is exactly 1 mile long. It takes a runner 7 minutes and 15 seconds to run once around the track at a steady pace.
How far, to the nearest foot, did the runner go in the first 15 seconds?
1 mile = 5,280 feet

Question

A circular track is exactly 1 mile long. It takes a runner 7 minutes and 15 seconds to run once around the track at a steady pace.
How far, to the nearest foot, did the runner go in the first 15 seconds?
1 mile = 5,280 feet

anonymous · Answer

Imagine the circular track being a rope. Stretch the rope out and you get a line. The line is 5,280 feet long, and you want to find out how far the runner gets the first 15 seconds of the total 7 minutes and 15 seconds it takes to run the full distance.

Using the formula distance = velocity * time.
We first need to find out how far he runs every second. To do that we convert minutes into seconds : 7*60 +15 = 435seconds. Then divide the total distance by how long it took to run.

The total distance of 5,280 / 435seconds = 12.13793103 ft/sec. 
 12.13793103ft/sec * 15sec = 182,0689655 feet.

Hope this helped.