Question

Elena and Jada are 12 miles apart on a path when they start moving towards each other Elena runs at a constant speed of 5 miles per hour and Jada walks a constant speed of 3 miles per hour how long does it take untill Elena and Jada meet? please explain answer. Thank you!

Answer 1

ANSWER

It took 1 hour 30 minutes

EXPLANATION

It was given that Elena and Jada are 12 miles apart.

This means that the distance between them is

$d = 12 \: miles$

We use the formula,

$speed = \frac{distance}{time}$

If Elena covers d miles in
$t_1 \: hours$

Then Jada will cover,
$( 12-d) \: miles$

in
$t_2 \: hours$

We were told that Elena runs at a constant speed of 5 miles per hour.

This implies that,
$5 = \frac{d}{t_1}$

$t_1= \frac{d}{5} ...eqn1$

and Jadda walks a constant speed of 3 miles per hour.

This implies that,

$3 = \frac{12-d}{t_2}$

This implies that,

$t_2 = \frac{12-d}{3} ...eqn2$

When Elena and Jada meets,then

$t_2 = t_1$

We equate the two equations and solve. This implies that,

$\frac{d}{5} = \frac{12-d}{3}$

We cross multiply to get,

$3d = 5(12-d)$

$3d = 60-5d$

This implies that,

$8d= 60$

$d = 7.5$

The time they met was after

$\frac{7.5}{5} = 1.5\: hours$

Answer 2

If you really want to figure this out you make an equation to solve for the time
let's let
x = time from Elena to Jada and
x = time from Jada to Elena
12 then the equation
12 = 5x +3x
would help figuring out their distance say for one of them
12 = x(5+3)
12/8 = x
1.5 = x
1. 5 hours they will meet up