Question

A car travels 40 miles in the first hour and 50 miles in the second hour. What is the car's average speed over the entire trip?

Answer 1

45 miles per hour

Explanation:

Average velocity is equal to the total distance traveled divided by the time it took to travel that distance.
`v = d/t`

In this case we are told two distances. So the total distance traveled is:
`d = d_1 +d _2`
`d = 40 + 50 = 90 " miles"`

We are also told about two time intervals. Each is an hour in length.
`t = t_1 + t_2`
`t = 1 + 1 = 2 " hours"`

Now we can calculate the average velocity for the entire trip using the first equation.
`v = (90 " miles")/(2 " hours") = 45 "miles"/"hour"`