Question

The Olympic record for a marathon is 2.00 hour 9.00 minute 21.0 seconds if the average speed of the runner achieving this record is 5.436 m/s what is the marathon distance

Answer 1

(2.00 hours) x (3,600 seconds/hour)  =  7,200 seconds

(9.00 minutes) x (60 seconds/minute)  =  540 seconds

The record time = (7,200 + 540 + 21) = 7,761 seconds

Distance  =  (speed) x (time)

                 = (5.436 m/s) x (7,761 sec)  =  42,188.8 meters
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The official length of the marathon run is  42,195 meters.
If we divide that by the record time in the question, we get

                       5.4368... m/s .

Rounded to the nearest thousandth, that's  5.437 m/s.

If the question had given the speed as  5.437  instead of  5.436 ,
then we would have calculated the distance to be 

            (5.437 m/s) x (7,761 sec)  =  42,196.6 meters,

4.6 meters closer to the official distance than the answer we did get.