Problema Solution
suppose two swimmers are racing in a retangular swimming pool.Both swimmers start at the same time.The first swimmer is swimming at 50 meters per hour and the second swimmer is at 60 meters per hour.The swimming pool is 20ft long and after the swimmers reach the end of the pool they switch direction and head back the the starting point.at what time are the swimmers the same distance from starting point
Answer provided by our tutors
First, lets think about the question intuitively. The only time when both swimmers will be at the same distance from the start is when the fast swimmer passes the slow swimmer on the fast swimmer's way back to the start.
Now, let's change the units of the pool from ft to meters because that is what the rest of the problem is written in:
20ft=20ft(1m/3.28 ft)=6.10m
Next, let's write an equation for each swimmer using the general equation d=rt (distance=rate*time):
Slow swimmer
d=50t
Fast swimmer
6.1+(6.1-d)=60t
We now have two equations with two unknowns. Using Algebrator to solve for 'd' and 't', we get:
d=5.46m
t=0.11 hr