If a person travels for 3 hours at 50 miles per hour, we can find the total distance traveled by multiplying:
/times
= 150miles This is similar to ##converting between units#{math/measurments}#); here, miles per hour is treated as a conversion factor, since 50 miles is equivalent to 1 hour, in a sense.
In general, to find the total distance traveled, multiply the total time spent traveling by the rate of travel. This can be expressed as an equation:
d = rt where d = total distance, r = rate of travel, and t = time
Using this equation, we can write
r and
t in terms of the other variables:
r =
and t =
Make sure units are consistent. If rate is given in miles per hour, time must be in hours and distance must be in miles.