Question

Ken normally leaves work at 5:00 pm, but he is leaving 20 minutes late today. He decides to make up time by taking the toll road instead of side streets. He can travel three times faster by taking the toll road. Create an equation in terms of x to represent the number of minutes after 5:00 pm he arrives home from work if he leaves late. Let x represent the number of minutes his normal commute takes when he leaves on time.
y = 1/3x + 20
y = 3x + 20
y = 1/3x - 20
y = 3x − 20

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct answer is: $y=\frac{1}{3} x + 20$

Step-by-step explanation:

As stated in the question that x represents the number of minutes his normal commute takes. Here the keyword is normal; in the normal commute, Ken takes side streets instead of the toll road.

However, in this scenario, we have to come up with the equation that takes Ken's commute via toll road.

Ken can travel 3 times faster by taking the toll road (Given), which can be represented in the mathematical terms in terms of x as follows:

$x_{toll\_road}=\frac{1}{3}x$

Without considering Ken getting late, the equation would become the following:

$y=\frac{1}{3} x$ --- (A)

As Ken is leaving late, we have to incorporate that time as well by adding it in the aforementioned equation (A).

In this case, it's 20 minutes; therefore, the equation (A) will become:

$y=\frac{1}{3} x+20$

Hence, the correct answer is $y=\frac{1}{3} x + 20$.