Question

A fish swims at a speed of 12 miles per hour. A boy swims at a speed of 4.4 feet per second. 3 ft = 1 yd 5280 ft = 1 mi How much faster does the fish swim than the boy in yards per minute?

Answer 1

You'll need to convert both speeds into yards per minute.

12 mph = 12 mph     1760 yd    60 min
                ---------- * ------------ * ----------
                  1 mile       1 hr

Note that "miles" cancels.  So does "hours."  Finish this work.

Then convert   4.4 ft/sec into yards per minute.

Then, finally, compare your two rates via subtraction of the smaller from the larger.

Answer 2

Okay. A boy swims 4.4 feet per second. There are 3,600 seconds in one hour. 4.4 * 3,600 is 15,840 feet in one hour. 15,840/5,280 is 3. The boy swims at 3 miles per hour. The fish swims at 12 mph. To find out how much faster the fish is than the boy in yards, we need to convert the measurements into yards and divide them per minute. Mind you, there are 1,760 yards in 1 mile. 12 * 1,760 is 21,120. 21,120/60 is 352. The fish swims 352 yards per minute. 3 * 1,760 is 5,280. 5,280/60 is 88. The boys swims 88 yards per minute. Now, we must subtract both numbers to see how much faster the fish swims. 352 - 88 = 264. There. The fish swims 264 yards faster per minute, than the boy.