Question

A young equestrian loved to ride her horse all day long, dreaming of the day she would ride in the kentucky derby. one day in early april, she left home at 10:00 am and rode her stallion at a nice, steady 10 miles per hour away from her house. at noon a call came in from the derby saying she was in! her father immediately jumped on his scooter to try and track her down and tell her the good news. riding at a breezy 15 miles per hour, at what time will her father catch up to her? what is a reasonable first step in solving this problem?

Answer 1

Poor family could afford a horse and a scooter but not a cellphone. Kidding aside, The girl had a two-hour head start, and was riding her horse at 10 mph. Her father was riding his scooter at 15 mph. As they will meet up, their distances would be the same. Looking at the formula for distance: distance = speed*time, we can equate the distance for the two people as they would be the same. This is shown below:

Let: x = number of hours

distance of girl = distance of dad
10(x + 2) = 15x
x = 4

Therefore, they will meet after 4 hours after 12:00pm, or at 4:00 pm.