I mean, Calvin has a point. Even if the road was completely clear, you'd still have to stop at traffic lights and stop signs. 50 miles is quite a ways too. It's not realistic to assume they'd be able to maintain that speed for the entire duration. That question is pretty bogus all around, haha!
Generally such problems include sentences such as "Assume their velocity to be constant" and "They are traveling in a straight line" to avoid ambiguity that could confuse the students into thinking the problem is a lot more complicated than it actually is supposed to be. (and to prevent students from claiming afterwards that there could be more than one solution or that there is no knowable solution and that therefore the problem is invalid and should therefore not count towards the test's grade)
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I mean, Calvin has a point. Even if the road was completely clear, you'd still have to stop at traffic lights and stop signs. 50 miles is quite a ways too. It's not realistic to assume they'd be able to maintain that speed for the entire duration. That question is pretty bogus all around, haha!
It's fair to say the mentioned speeds are averages including stops and slowdowns, so it's perfectly valid
Realistically, that should be conveyed in the text of the problem.
Yes, thats what will make people want to do math, add more complexity.
Generally such problems include sentences such as "Assume their velocity to be constant" and "They are traveling in a straight line" to avoid ambiguity that could confuse the students into thinking the problem is a lot more complicated than it actually is supposed to be. (and to prevent students from claiming afterwards that there could be more than one solution or that there is no knowable solution and that therefore the problem is invalid and should therefore not count towards the test's grade)
The answer would be 5:40, right? 50=40x+35x, solving for x gives 2/3 of an hour?
Yep 👍 ! ;-)
::: spoiler I haven’t done a word problem in 12 years 17:40 :::