Question

A truck has left Amsterdam with a speed of 52 mph. After 5 hours a car has left Amsterdam with a speed of 78 mph. At what distance from Amsterdam will the car catch up with the truck?

Answer 1

It would be 10 hours but the distance would be 260 mph.

Answer 2

Answer:

780 miles

Step-by-step explanation:

Before the car started its journey, the truck was already 260 miles ahead of the car.

52 miles per hour for 5 hours is $52*5=260$ miles

From then onwards, the car travels at 78mph and truck still 52mph. How much faster is the car?

$78-52=26$ miles per hour

This means the car is catching up on the truck at 26 miles every hour!

And we know the distance to catch up is 260 miles.

So at 26 miles every hour, how long would it take the car to catch up 260 miles?

$\frac{260}{26}=10$ hours.

We want to know how far are they from Amsterdam when the catch up happens. So in 10 hours at 78 miles per hour, the car is  $78*10=780$ miles from Amsterdam (this is when catch up occurs).

So the distance is 780 miles from Amsterdam