Question

Your running a fuel economy study. You find a blue car. It travels 44 1/2 miles on 1 1/4 gallons of gasoline another car is red it can travel 20 4/5 miles on 4/5 gallons of gasoline what is the unit rate for miles per gallon for each car? Which car could travel the greatest distance on one gallon of gasoline

Answer 1

Given:

Blue car travels $44\dfrac{1}{2}$ miles on $1\dfrac{1}{4}$ gallons of gasoline.

Red car travels $20\dfrac{4}{5}$ miles on $\dfrac{4}{5}$ gallons of gasoline.

To find:

The unit rate for miles per gallon for each car and find which car could travel the greatest distance on one gallon of gasoline.

Solution:

We know that,

$\text{Unit rate}=\dfrac{\text{Total distance covered by the car}}{\text{Number of gallons of gasoline}}$

Using this formula, the unit rate of blue car is

$\text{Unit rate of blue car}=\dfrac{44\dfrac{1}{2}}{1\dfrac{1}{4}}$

$\text{Unit rate of blue car}=\dfrac{\dfrac{88+1}{2}}{\dfrac{4+1}{4}}$

$\text{Unit rate of blue car}=\dfrac{89}{2}\times \dfrac{4}{5}$

$\text{Unit rate of blue car}=\dfrac{178}{5}$

$\text{Unit rate of blue car}=35.6$

Unit rate of red car is

$\text{Unit rate of red car}=\dfrac{20\dfrac{4}{5}}{\dfrac{4}{5}}$

$\text{Unit rate of red car}=\dfrac{\dfrac{100+4}{5}}{\dfrac{4}{5}}$

$\text{Unit rate of red car}=\dfrac{104}{5}\times \dfrac{5}{4}$

$\text{Unit rate of red car}=26$

Therefore, the unit rate of blue car is 35.6 miles per gallon of gasoline and  unit rate of red car is 26 miles per gallon of gasoline.

Since, unit rate of blue car is greater than the red car, therefore blue car travel the greatest distance on one gallon of gasoline.