Question

On Martin's first stroke, his golf ball traveled 4/5 of the distance to the hole. On his second stroke, the ball went into the hole. Martin was standing 79 meters from the hole as he took his second stroke. How many kilometers from the hole was Martin when he started?

Answer 1

If his 1st stroke went 4/5 of the way to the hole, that means the 2nd stroke was 1/5 of the distance. Since we know that the 2nd stroke was 79 meters, we can use this to find the distance from where he started...

If 1/5 = 79 meters then
4/5 = 79 × 4 = 316 meters

Since 1/5 + 4/5 = 5/5 = 1 then 79 m + 316 m = 395 meters for the total distance.

But wait! There's more. The question asks how many kilometers the hole is from where he started... there are 1000 meters per kilometer so...

395 m × 1 km/1000 m =
395/1000 m = .395 km

Total distance from start to hole is .395 km

Yay!!