Problem of the Week 4

POW Writeup due Friday, October 16

Jason and Maya went to Cream Bean Berry and left on their mountain bikes to go home at 1:15
pm. Maya travelled north at 32 mph and Jason travelled east at 24 mph. Determine the time when
Maya and Jason will be 130 miles apart and how far each of them will have travelled.

1. In this problem I need to calculate how many hours the people traveled until they
were diagonally 130 miles apart if they left at 1:15 pm. In the problem, the rate that
the people traveled is given, and so is the time that the people left in separate
directions. To solve this problem I need to find the time variable and add that into the
pythagorean theorem equation, a^2 + b^2 = c^2. Or 24x^2 + 32x^2 = 130^2. I need to
find X.
2. The answer then this problem will be over 1 hour that they traveled because 24mph
and 32mph distance over 1 hour is only 56 miles overall and that is too small for the
pythagorean theorem to work if the longest side is already 130 miles. I started to
find the answer by calculating what 24 and 32 would be using the pythagorean
theorem with a time variable known in this problem as X.
a^2 + b^2 = c^2
(24x)^2 + (32x)^2 = 130^2
I calculated these.
576x^2 + 1024x^2 = 16900
Added them together.
1600x^2 = 16900
I then divided both sides by 1600 to solve for x.
x^2 = 10.56
To find the time variable x I found the square root of x^2 and 10.56,.
x = 3.25 hours
If each person walked for 3 hours and 15 minutes then:
24 x 3.25 + 32 x 3.25 = 182 miles overall.
1:15pm + 3:15 =
4:30 pm

3. The time it will be when the two people are 130 miles apart diagonally will be 4:30 pm. If
the people left the same area at 1:15 pm and traveled 3 hours and 15 minutes each, one
going North and another East, Jason traveled 78 miles in 3 hours 15 minutes, and Maya
traveled 104 miles in 3 hours 15 minutes. Together they traveled 182 miles.
4. The answer was conclusive to my prediction, as the answer was longer than 1 hour. I
know my answer is correct because I redid the problem multiple times and got the same
answer each time. I also know it is correct because the square of (24 x 3.25) and the square
of (32 x 3.25) added together is equal to final mileage, 130, after finding the square root.
And because 24 x 3.25 is 78, and 32 x 3.25 is 104. Added together they are 104 + 78 = 182,
which is in fact bigger than the hypotenuse, concluding that it is actually a triangle, and the
problem can be done.