Please help me with this assignment ASAP!!! I only partially understand, so please explain. Also it's a work sample.

At the championship bike race, Steve and Paula were fighting for first place. Steve was 175 feet ahead of Paula and had only 300 feet left to go. He was very tired and was going only 9 feet per second. Paula was desperate to catch up and was going 15 feet per second. Who won the bike race and by how far did she/he win?

Respuesta :

To find the answer, we can first find the distance each of them have, then divide it by their speed to find the time needed.

Distance Steve need to travel: 300 feet
Distance Paula need to travel:
300+175(behind steve) = 475 feet

Time needed respectively:

Steve: 300 ÷ 9 = 33.33.. seconds
Paula: 475 ÷ 15 = 31.66... seconds

As we can see from the result, Paula would take less time to reach the goal (31.66<33.33),
therefore, Paula win the bike race by:

33.33-31.67
=1.66...
≈1.67 feet

Thus Paula won by 1.67 feet.

Hope it helps!