+219 Will and Grace are canoeing on a lake. Will rows at $50$ meters per minute and Grace rows at $30$ meters per minute. Will starts rowing at $2$ p.m. from the west end of the lake, and Grace starts rowing from the east end of the lake at $2{:}45$ p.m. If they always row directly towards each other, and the lake is $2800$ meters across from the west side of the lake to the east side, at what time will the two meet?
+1926 First, let's find the distance Will travels before Grace even starts rowing.
Since Will has a 45 minute head start, we have the equation
\((45 min)(50 m/min) = 2250 m \)
This means that Will and Grace must cover
\((2800 m) – (2250 m) = 550 m \) together.
Let's say the two row t minutes. Since we add their speeds together, we have
\( (50)(t) + (30)(t) = 550 \\ 80t = 550 \\ t = 550/80 = 6.875 \)
This rounds to about 6 minutes and 52 seconds.
In total, the two took 51 minutes and 32 seconds to meet each other . So, the two will meet at \(2:51:52 pm \)
So 2:51:52 is our answer.
Thanks! :)
