ShmoopTube

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Here’s your shmoop du jour…

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A Trekkie needs to get to Comic-Con by 2 o’clock so he doesn’t miss Patrick Stewart’s big speech.

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It takes his car, going at an average speed of 45 mph, 12 minutes to reach its destination

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from a designated starting point.

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How far apart in kilometers is the destination away from the starting point?

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Here are the potential answers…

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Ok, what is this question asking?

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It’s one of those distance-time-rate problems that we hold so near and dear to our hearts.

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Since we know miles per hour, and we’re given another piece of information that’s

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in terms of minutes…

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…it would probably be a good idea to get everything on the same page.

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If our Trekkie friend is going 45 miles per hour, how fast is he traveling per minute?

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Well, he’s going 45 miles in 60 minutes…

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…so we’re looking at 45-sixtieths… or three-fourths… of a mile in one minute.

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It takes him 12 minutes to reach his destination…

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…and 12 times 3/4 equals 9… so he traveled 9 miles.

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But we can’t live long and prosper just yet. Let’s not fall for choice C, which

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is clearly trying to catch us in a Vulcan trap.

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The question is asking for kilometers, not miles.

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We’re told that 1 mile is about 1.6 kilometers…

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…so let’s multiply 9 by 1.6… to get 14.4 kilometers.

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Our answer is D.

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As in, “Deep Space Nine.”

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