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?
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! :)