A police officer is chasing a purse snatcher down a street. The thief starts 9 yards ahead of the officer and can run 20 yards in 4 seconds (5 y/s). The police officer can run 32 yards in 4 seconds (8 y/s). How long will it take the officer to catch the thief?

Answer 1

To find out how long it will take the police officer to catch the thief, we need to determine how much distance the officer needs to cover to reach the thief.

The thief starts 9 yards ahead of the officer, so the distance the officer needs to cover is 9 yards.

The police officer can run 8 yards per second, so we can calculate the time it will take for the officer to catch the thief by dividing the distance by the officer's speed:

Time = Distance / Speed = 9 yards / 8 y/s = 1.125 seconds

Therefore, it will take the police officer 1.125 seconds to catch the thief.