Thread: Need help with basic GRE Math question

Greetings All,
I'm reviewing a GRE Math question from Princeton Review and I'm having trouble setting up an equation:

Question is: At the rate of f/3 feet per m minutes, how many feet can a bicycle travel in s seconds?

The answer is stated as fs / 180m

But I don't know why or how the above equation is set up. I know that by using their plugging-in method, I can easily plug f=3, m=1, s=60 to have the answer at 1 ft per 1 minute, thus the above formula is the only correct formula, but I would like to understand how to set up an equation so that I can set up problems algebraically when I encounter them during the exam.

Many thanks in advance for all your help.

Originally Posted by tutormeplz

Greetings All,
I'm reviewing a GRE Math question from Princeton Review and I'm having trouble setting up an equation:

Question is: At the rate of f/3 feet per m minutes, how many feet can a bicycle travel in s seconds?

The answer is stated as fs / 180m

But I don't know why or how the above equation is set up. I know that by using their plugging-in method, I can easily plug f=3, m=1, s=60 to have the answer at 1 ft per 1 minute, thus the above formula is the only correct formula, but I would like to understand how to set up an equation so that I can set up problems algebraically when I encounter them during the exam.

Many thanks in advance for all your help.

f/3 feet in m minutes is f/(3m) feet per minute.

f/(3m) feet per minite is [f/3m]/60 feet per second, which simplifies to f/(180m) fps.

So in s seconds it moves s[f/(180m)]=fs/(180m) feet.

CB

f/3 feet per m minutes, how many feet can a bicycle travel in s seconds?

f/3/m=f/3m
s/60min=s seconds
f/3m*s/60=fs/180m

d (fpm) = f/3*m not f/3m
d (fps) =f/3*60 times s m should not appear 60 makes the conversion to seconds 1m = 60 s


bjh

This was my first post - I thank everyone for their time, input and most importantly utmost kind help. Thank you everyone.