Can any one help me with this problem tooo many steps..?

Question

Two bikers are 600 feet apart

They begin to bike toward one another. One bike is traveling at 10 feet per second; the other bike is moving at 15 feet per second.

A fly continuously flies from one bike to another at 30 feet per second. How far does the fly fly by the time the bikers meet?

Answer 1

how can it fly anymore when they meet?

EDIT: sorry i got a little arrogant there.

- what you need is the time it takes for the bikers to meet

- that is the same time the fly flew around

- by using the time the fly flew and multiplying it by its speed. you get the distance the fly covered

so this is how you figure out how long it takes for the bikers to meet in the first place:

-because the bikers move towards eachother , their speeds add up.

-so they will cover 600 feet with a speed of 25 feet/second (10+15).

-the time it takes for the bikers to meet can be worked out from that speed and that distance using... time = distance / speed  (time is distance divided by speed)

hope that helps enough

greetings

Answer 2

if i did this correctly, the bikers will meet at 360 ft, in 24 seconds. so the fly will have traveled 720 feet. here's my work:

Seconds biker 1 biker 2 fly

0 600 0 0

1 590 15 30

2 580 30 60

3 570 45 90

4 560 60 120

5 550 75 150

6 540 90 180

7 530 105 210

8 520 120 240

9 510 135 270

10 500 150 300

11 490 165 330

12 80 180 360

13 70 195 390

14 60 210 420

15 50 225 450

16 40 240 480

17 30 255 510

18 20 270 540

19 10 285 570

20 400 300 600

21 390 315 630

22 80 330 660

23 70 345 690

24 60 360 720

25 50 375 750

26 40 390 780

27 30 405 810

28 20 420 840

29 10 435 870

30 300 450 900

**hope its right! =]**

Answer 3

This is an old question.  If you try to solve it by "normal" means, you end up with an infinite series.  You can sum the series, but it takes a bit of knowledge there.

The bikes are moving together at 25 feet per second.  If they have to travel 600 feet, then it'll take 600/25 = 24 seconds for them to meet.  If the fly is traveling 30 feet per second the whole time, then it travels 30(24) = 720 feet before it's crushed between the bikes.