A roller coaster ride travels travels along 3300 feet of track at an average rate of 15 miles per hour. If 5280 feet equals 1 mile, how many seconds does the ride take to travel this length of track?

1 answer

To determine how long the roller coaster ride takes to travel along 3300 feet of track at an average speed of 15 miles per hour, we can follow these steps:

  1. Convert the speed from miles per hour to feet per second:
    • We know that 1 mile = 5280 feet, and there are 3600 seconds in an hour.
    • Therefore, the speed in feet per second can be calculated as follows:

\[ \text{Speed (feet/second)} = 15 \text{ miles/hour} \times \frac{5280 \text{ feet}}{1 \text{ mile}} \times \frac{1 \text{ hour}}{3600 \text{ seconds}} \]

Calculating this:

\[ = 15 \times \frac{5280}{3600} \]

Now, simplify \( \frac{5280}{3600} \):

\[ = \frac{5280 \div 720}{3600 \div 720} = \frac{7.3333}{5} = 1.4666667 \]

Now multiply this by 15:

\[ 15 \times 1.4666667 = 22.000 \]

So, the speed in feet per second is approximately \( 22 \) feet/second.

  1. Now calculate the time to travel 3300 feet:
    • We can use the formula:

\[ \text{Time} = \frac{\text{Distance}}{\text{Speed}} \]

Substituting in the values we have:

\[ \text{Time} = \frac{3300 \text{ feet}}{22 \text{ feet/second}} = 150 \text{ seconds} \]

Therefore, the roller coaster ride takes 150 seconds to travel the length of the track.