MATH world problem URGENT?

Question

Josh and Mike live 13 miles apart. Yesterday Josh started to ride his bike towards mikes house. a little later mike started to ride his bike toward joshs house. when they met josh had ridden for twice the time as mike and at 4/5 mikes rate. How many miles had mike ridden when they met?

Answer 1

Well, let's start naming variables.

t = length of time Josh has been riding
u = length of time Mike has been riding

t = 2*u

J = Josh's speed
M = Mike's speed

J = 4/5 M

D = Josh's distance
E = Mike's distance

D = J * t
E = M * u

D + E = 13

That's what we know. And we're solving for E.

Now let's make equations and variables go away.

D = J * 2u = 4/5M * 2u = 8/5 * (M*u) = 8/5 * E

E + 8/5 * E = 13

13/5 * E = 13

E = 5.

There you have it!

Sometimes going crazy with the number of equations and variables is actually the easier way to go about things.