Question

Jimbo drives a fanboat giving alligator sightseeing tours, and he wants to be more efficient about how he shows his clients around the swamp. He has two possible tour routes, and he needs you to help compare them:

a) Jimbo drives away from his home dock at 20 miles per hour (mph) for 9 minutes. He then stops to let his clients take pictures for 10 minutes. He drives further away at 10 mph for 12 minutes, and stops for nine minutes while his clients pet the alligators. Finally, he cruises back towards his dock at 5 mph for 6 minutes and lets his clients off at a restaurant for crawdads.

b) Jimbo drives at 25 mph for 12 minutes, waits 6 minutes while his customers pet the gators, then drives two miles back towards his dock which takes 5 minutes. He lets his clients swim with the gators for 20 minutes, then lets them back in the boat and drives them at 15 mph away from his home dock for 6 minutes, where he lets them out again for crawdads.

i) What is the total distance traveled for each trip? ii) Which trip has the fastest average speed, and what is it?

Answer 1

a )

the total distance travelled is  

d1 = (20*9/60)+(10*12/60)+(5*6/60) miles = 5.5 miles

total time taken is  

9 + 10 +12 + 9 +6 min = 46 min

b)

the total distance travelled is  

d2 = (25*12/60)+(2*5/60)+(15*6/60) miles = 6.667 miles

total time taken is  

12 + 6 +5 + 20 +6 min = 49 min

i) d1 = 5.5 miles , d2 = 6.667 miles

the average speed is Vavg1 = 5.5/(46/60) mph = 7.174 mph

the average speed is Vavg2 = 6.667/(49/60) mph = 8.164 mph

for the second trip has fastest average speed