<p>Esther drove to work in the morning at an average speed of 45 mph. She returned home in the evening along the same route at an average speed of 30 mph. If she spent a total of 1 hour driving, how many miles did she drive in the morning.</p>
<p>The answer is 18 and I keep getting 22.5. Can someone help me out please</p>
<p>Are you sure the answer is not 36?</p>
<p>ok
let x be the distance in the morning. so distance in the evening is also x.
then time taken to travel in the morning = x/45
time taken to travel in the evenng = x/30
total time = 1 hr
so,
x/30 + x/45 = 1</p>
<p>solve for x and the answer is 18.</p>
<p>ORRRR there’s even a more simple way.
USE THIS FORMULA: (2 * speed 1 * speed 2)/(speed 1 + speed 2). --This is for the round trip however, which is why i asked if the answer was 36 but then i realized that it’s only asking for the distance of one of the routes that she took. So, 36/2=18 because the distance she went and came back must be the same if she went along on the same route.</p>
<p>thanks! i appreciate the help</p>