Greg and Gary start a bicycle race at the same place and time.Greg travels at a constant speed of 16 miles/hour and Gary at a constant speed of 12 miles/hour. Greg finishes the race 2 hours ahead of Gary. How many miles did Greg travel in the race?

Please help me with a simple solution that a 5th grader would understand. The method has to be without having to use the time equation,he has not studied time = dist/speed Thank you in advance.

2 answers

Greg and Gary start a bicycle race at the same place and time.Greg travels at a constant speed of 16 miles/hour and Gary at a constant speed of 12 miles/hour. Greg finishes the race 2 hours ahead of Gary. How many miles did Greg travel in the race?

Please help me with a simple solution that a 5th grader would understand. The method has to be without having to use the time equation,he has not studied time = dist/speed Thank you in advance.
it takes Gary two hours to catch up to Greg at the finish

because Gary goes 12 miles/hour, Greg finished 24 miles ahead of Gary

every hour, Greg travels 4 miles more than Gary
... so it took Greg 6 hours to get a 24 mile lead and finish the race

Greg goes 16 miles/hour, so in 6 hours he goes 96 miles