Joe bikes miles East at mph to his friend’s house. He then turns South and bikes miles at mph to the store. Then, Joe turns East again and goes to his grandma’s house at mph. On this last leg, he has to carry flour he bought for her at the store. Her house is more miles from the store than Joe’s friend’s house is from the store. Joe spends a total of 1 hour on the bike to get to his grandma’s house. If Joe then rides straight home in his grandma’s helicopter at mph, how many minutes does it take Joe to get home from his grandma’s house
Solution
1. Joe bikes miles East at mph to his friend’s house. The time taken for this leg of the journey is:
2. Joe then turns South and bikes miles at mph to the store. The time taken for this leg of the journey is:
3. Joe then turns East again and bikes to his grandma’s house at mph. The distance from the store to his grandma’s house is miles. The time taken for this leg of the journey is:
4. Joe spends a total of 1 hour on the bike to get to his grandma’s house. Therefore, we have:
Substituting the expressions for , , and :
Simplifying the equation:
To solve for , find a common denominator (which is 70):
5. The distance from Joe’s grandma’s house to his home is the hypotenuse of a right triangle with legs miles and miles (since and ):
6. Joe rides straight home in his grandma’s helicopter at mph. The time taken to get home is:
Converting this time to minutes:
The final answer is