During a hurricane evacuation from the east coast of Georgia, a family traveled 450 miles west. For the first part of the trip, they averaged 25 mph less than the second part, where their average speed was 62mph. If the total time of travel was 9 hours, how many miles did they drive at the reduced speed?

I have tried every which way to figure this out. I thought that I needed to figure out how fast they were going, 49.5 at reduced speed and 74.5 at full speed. Totally lost.

2 answers

the problem gives the speeds in both parts
... 62 mph in the 2nd part
... and 25 mph less in the 1st part

let t be the time of reduced speed
... 37 t + 62(9 - t) = 450

find the time, then multiply by speed to find the distance
once I find the time, which would be in a xx.xx format, I would calculate the distance at d=rt , correct?