Question

A car and a truck left Washington, DC traveling in opposite directions. The car traveled 19 miles per hour faster than the truck, and at the end of 8 hours they were 1048 miles apart. What was the average speed of each vehicle?

Answer 1

Total speed was 1048 mi/(8 h) = 131 mi/h. The car was traveling at half this speed plus half the difference, (131 +19)/2 = 75 mi/h.

The truck was traveling at 75 mi/h -19 mi/h = 56 mi/h.

Answer 2

The average speed of the truck is 81 miles per hour

The average speed of the car is 100 miles per hour