If you a living on one side of transform boundary and your neighbour is on the other side. Currently, he is 10 m away from your house and the two plates are sliding past each other at the rate of 5cm per year. How long will it take to be 9m away from your neighbour?

1 answer

To determine how long it will take for you to be 9 meters away from your neighbor, we can start with the current distance between you and your neighbor, which is 10 meters.

You're moving away from each other at a rate of 5 cm per year, which is equivalent to 0.05 meters per year.

You want the distance between you to become 9 meters. This means you need to decrease the distance by 1 meter (from 10 meters to 9 meters).

To find out how long it will take to decrease the distance by 1 meter given that you are moving apart at a rate of 0.05 meters per year, we can use the formula:

\[ \text{Time (years)} = \frac{\text{Distance change (meters)}}{\text{Rate (meters per year)}} \]

In this case:

\[ \text{Time} = \frac{1 \text{ meter}}{0.05 \text{ meters per year}} = 20 \text{ years} \]

Therefore, it will take 20 years for you to be 9 meters away from your neighbor.