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Worked example: Rate problem

Sal solves two related proportion word problems about a squirrel crossing the road and a car that approaches it. He does that using dimensional analysis. Created by Sal Khan.

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  • blobby green style avatar for user Julie Smith
    I am not understanding the questions about 9 people painting 7 walls in 20 minutes so how long would it take 20 people to paint 3 walls? I don't get it.
    (38 votes)
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  • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user Jackson Olding
    is there other ways to solve this with out fraction like method.
    (6 votes)
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    • blobby green style avatar for user laihuaqing
      Yes, there is always another way
      such as this way:
      It takes 0.5 seconds for the car to move there (50 feet divided at 100feetpersecond is half a second)
      It takes 0.75 seconds for the squirrel to move across the road(at 12 feet per second it's going to take 0.75 seconds to cross the road)
      Therefore poor squirrel will die.
      (2 votes)
  • female robot grace style avatar for user Ninah
    Starting at home, Emily traveled uphill to the hardware store for 60 minutes at just 6 mph. She then traveled back home along the same path downhill at a speed of 12 mph.

    What is her average speed for the entire trip from home to the hardware store and back?

    I've watched the worked example rate problem video and also read the hint for this problem and I can't figure it out. Could someone explain to me in detail how to work out this type of rate problem?
    (6 votes)
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    • primosaur ultimate style avatar for user mlaldridge514
      Nichole's answer is incorrect, as the trip is shorter on the way down due to the increased speed. Thus, you must calculate a weighted average. To do this, you must first find out how far the trip is. Get this by using the first trip's travel time and speed (I will let you figure out how to do that since the video tells you how). After that, use the distance you just found and the return trip's speed to calculate the time for the second trip (again, the video shows you how to do this. It is essentially just a unit conversion). Finally, use the times to calculate a weighted average speed for the trip. In other words, instead of simply (6+12)/2, you will use the following formula, inserting the time you calculated, represented by "t" in this equation: (60*6+t*12)/(60+t). This problem is a horrible example and assumes you will know how and when to calculate weighted averages. Hopefully, my answer helps give you the outside information you need so you can focus on applying the information in this video.
      (3 votes)
  • starky sapling style avatar for user Knight1000
    This video doesn't explain some problems on Rate 2.
    (6 votes)
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  • starky ultimate style avatar for user SrikarC
    Can someone PLEASE help with these type problems? I'm getting sooo frustrated on these questions. I really need help!!
    (6 votes)
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  • piceratops ultimate style avatar for user Felix
    This video does not help me with this problem:

    Starting at home, Omar traveled uphill to the gift store for 30 minutes at just 10 mph. He then traveled back home along the same path downhill at a speed of 30 mph.

    How do I do this? I can't just average the two speeds, the faster one takes less time. Any suggestions?
    (4 votes)
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    • stelly blue style avatar for user Kim Seidel
      You didn't say what you need to find. I assume you need to find the time it took him to go downhill.
      You need to use the formula of: distance = rate * time
      You can find the distance traveled using the info for going uphill:
      30min/60 mph * 10mph = 1/2 * 10 mi=5 miles

      You now know the distance uphill or downhill = 5 miles
      Let T = the time to go downhill.
      30mph * T = 5 miles
      Divide both sides by 30 mph and you get T = 5/30 hrs = 1/6 hrs or 10 mins.
      Hope this helps.
      (3 votes)
  • blobby green style avatar for user Amy😊🐱🐹👅👄💅💅
    I have a question about one of the practice problems.
    "Starting at home, Nadia traveled uphill to the grocery store for 30 minutes at just 4 mph. She then traveled back home along the same path downhill at a speed of 12 mph."

    My answer was 8mph, as the average of 12 and 4 mph is 8, but it was incorrect. How is this so? Her speed remained at 12 and 4 mph the entire journey.

    In Hint 2/12, you wrote: "She traveled for a longer time uphill (since she was going slower), so we can estimate that the average speed is closer to 4 mph than 12 mph."

    This contradicts what was written in the problem, because you did not clarify whether her speed was constant. When no clarification on the speed is given, we will always assume that she traveled at a constant speed.
    (4 votes)
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    • mr pink green style avatar for user David Severin
      The problem is that the average speed is based on time/min. So since distances are equal, 4 mph * 30 min * 1 hr/60 min gives a distance of 2 miles. We need to find the time to get home, so traveling 12 mph, we have to say 2 miles/12 mph * 60 min/hour gives 10 minutes. So she travelled 4 miles in a total of 40 minutes, 4 m/40 min * 60 min/hr = 6 m/hr as her average speed. We do see that 6 is in fact closer to 4 than to 12. Hint 2 does not contradict the constant speed, it just notes that the constant speed of 4 mph is slower than the constant speed of 12 mph.
      (2 votes)
  • piceratops ultimate style avatar for user Steven
    Clarify why we want seconds per feet?
    (5 votes)
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  • starky ultimate style avatar for user ⚔ Brooke ⚔
    Why can't we do "feet per second" instead of seconds per feet?
    (3 votes)
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  • primosaur sapling style avatar for user Ria Shah
    In Squirrel Survival:
    i don't get how he writes 9ft * 1/12 * seconds/feet
    Can someone explain to me please?
    (0 votes)
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Video transcript

A squirrel is running across the road at 12 feet per second. It needs to run 9 feet to get across the road. How long will it take the squirrel to run 9 feet? Round to the nearest hundredth of a second. Fair enough. A car is 50 feet away from the squirrel-- OK, this is a high-stakes word problem-- driving toward it at a speed of 100 feet per second. How long will it take the car to drive 50 feet? Round to the nearest hundredth of a second. Will the squirrel make it 9 feet across the road before the car gets there? So this definitely is high stakes, at least for the squirrel. So let's answer the first question. Let's figure out how long will it take the squirrel to run 9 feet. So let's think about it. So the squirrel's got to go 9 feet, and we want to figure out how many seconds it's going to take. So would we divide or multiply this by 12? Well, to think about that, you could think about the units where we want to get an answer in terms of seconds. We want to figure out time, so it'd be great if we could multiply this times seconds per foot. Then the feet will cancel out, and I'll be left with seconds. Now, right over here, we're told that the squirrel can run at 12 feet per second, but we want seconds per foot. So the squirrel, every second, so they go 12 feet per second, then we could also say 1 second per every 12 feet. So let's write it that way. So it's essentially the reciprocal of this because the units are the reciprocal of this. So, it's 1 second for every 12 feet. Notice, all I did is I took this information right over here, 12 feet per second, and I wrote it as second per foot-- 12 feet for every 1 second, 1 second for every 12 feet. What's useful about this is this will now give me the time it takes for the squirrel in seconds. So the feet cancel out with the feet, and I am left with 9 times 1/12, which is 9/12 seconds. And 9/12 seconds is the same thing as 3/4 seconds, which is the same thing as 0.75 seconds for the squirrel to cross the street. Now let's think about the car. So now let's think about the car. And it's the exact same logic. They tell us that the car is 50 feet away. So the squirrel is trying to cross the road like that, and the car is 50 feet away coming in like that, and we want to figure out if the squirrel will survive. So the car is 50 feet away. So it's 50 feet away. We want to figure out the time it'll take to travel that 50 feet. Once again, we would want it in seconds. So we would want seconds per feet. So we would want to multiply by seconds per foot. They give us the speed in feet per second, 100 feet per second. And so we just have to realize that this is 100 feet for every 1 second, or 1/100 seconds per feet. This is once again just this information, but we took the reciprocal of it, because we don't want feet per second, we want seconds per feet. And if we do that, that cancels with that, and we're left with 50/100 seconds. So this is 50/100 is 0.50 seconds. And so now let's answer the question, this life and death situation for the squirrel. Will the squirrel make it 9 feet across the road before the car gets there? Well, it's going to take the squirrel 0.75 seconds to cross, and it's going to take the car only half a second. So the car is going to get to where the squirrel is crossing before the squirrel has a chance to get all the way across the road. So unfortunately for the squirrel, the answer is no.