Solve the following word problem, a shark is swimming at -14.2 m or 14.2 m below sea level every five minutes it distance another 1.2 m how long will it take the shark to reach -23.8 m or 23.8 m below sea level show your work and write a sentence to explain what your answer means.

Answer 1

To find how long it will take the shark to reach -23.8 m below sea level, we need to determine how many times the shark needs to swim downward by 1.2 m.

The difference in distance between -14.2 m and -23.8 m is 23.8 - 14.2 = 9.6 m.

To travel a distance of 9.6 m, the shark needs to swim downward 9.6 ÷ 1.2 = 8 times.

Since the shark swims downward every five minutes, it will take the shark 8 × 5 = 40 minutes to reach -23.8 m or 23.8 m below sea level.

This means it will take the shark 40 minutes to swim from its starting point at -14.2 m to a depth of -23.8 m below sea level.