Asked by julie

Roger and Rita each drive at a constant speed between Phoenix and San Diego. Each driver’s distance (miles) is shown for the same elapsed time (hours) of the trip. Who had a head start, and how many miles was the head start?



Rita had a 28-mile head start.
Roger had a 26-mile head start.
Roger had a 25-mile head start.
Rita had a 22-mile head start.

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
I don’t see the graph or the data points. Could you either upload the graph or list two points (time, distance) from each driver’s line? With two points per line I can find each line’s vertical intercept (distance at time 0) and subtract them to get who had the head start and how many miles.

How I’ll do it (quick method):
- For each driver, take two points (t1,d1) and (t2,d2). Compute speed (slope) m = (d2−d1)/(t2−t1).
- Compute the intercept (distance at t=0): b = d1 − m·t1.
- The head start = difference of the two intercepts (positive means the one with larger intercept started ahead).

If you post the points or an image of the graph I’ll compute the exact answer.