Question

A tortoise is walking in the desert. It walks
6.4 meters in
4 minutes. What is its speed?

Answer 1

It's speed is exactly 6.4 meters per 4 minutes.

In the more familiar units, that's

       (6.4 m / 4 min) = 1.6 meters per minute

(1.6 m / min) (100 cm/m) ( 1 min / 60 sec)  =  2-2/3 cm per sec.

                                                                       (1.05 inch per second, rounded)

                                                                       (160.3 furlongs per fortnight, rounded)

Answer 2

The speed of the tortoise can be calculate as follows:

$v=\frac{S}{t}$

where

S is the distance travelled by the tortoise

t is the time taken

In this problem, S=6.4 m, while we should convert the time into seconds:

$t=4 min= 4\cdot 60 =240 s$

Substituting the numbers into the equation, we find the speed:

$v=\frac{S}{t}=\frac{6.4 m}{240 s}=0.027 m/s$