According to the 1998 Information Please Almanac, the official speed record for running one mile was held by Richard Webster of England in 1865, with a time of 4 minutes 36.5 seconds. Roger Bannister, also of England, was the first to run a mile in less than four minutes, clocking a time of 3 minutes 59.4 seconds in 1954. There are (of course) 60 seconds in each minute. Therefore, we could convert both times into seconds, writing them as follows: a1865 = 276.5 seconds and a1954 = 239.4 seconds. Assuming the speeds decrease from year to year in an arithmetic pattern (which they actually h

Question

According to the 1998 Information Please Almanac, the official speed record for running one mile was held by Richard Webster of England in 1865, with a time of 4 minutes 36.5 seconds.    Roger Bannister, also of England, was the first to run a mile in less than four minutes, clocking a time of 3 minutes 59.4 seconds in 1954.  There are (of course) 60 seconds in each minute. Therefore, we could convert both times into seconds, writing them as follows:  a1865 = 276.5 seconds and a1954 = 239.4 seconds.  Assuming the speeds decrease from year to year in an arithmetic pattern (which they actually h