A car travels from Boston to Hartford in 4 hours. The two cities are 240 kilometers apart. What was the average speed of the care during the trip? A. 4 km/hour B. 60 km/hour C. 36 km/hour D. 960 km/hour
The Correct Answer and Explanation is:
To find the average speed of the car during the trip, we use the formula for average speed: Average speed=Total distanceTotal time\text{Average speed} = \frac{\text{Total distance}}{\text{Total time}}
Given:
Distance from Boston to Hartford = 240 kilometers
Time taken = 4 hours
Now plug the values into the formula: Average speed=240 km4 hours=60 km/hour\text{Average speed} = \frac{240 \text{ km}}{4 \text{ hours}} = 60 \text{ km/hour}
✅ Correct answer: B. 60 km/hour
Explanation
To determine how fast the car was traveling on average, we use the fundamental concept of average speed, which is the total distance traveled divided by the total time taken to travel that distance.
In this case, the car is traveling between two cities: Boston and Hartford. We are told the journey covers a total distance of 240 kilometers, and it takes exactly 4 hours to complete the trip.
Using the formula for average speed: Average speed=DistanceTime\text{Average speed} = \frac{\text{Distance}}{\text{Time}}
Plugging in the given values: 240 km4 hr=60 km/hr\frac{240 \text{ km}}{4 \text{ hr}} = 60 \text{ km/hr}
This means that, on average, the car covered 60 kilometers every hour during the 4-hour trip.
Understanding average speed is important because it gives a simplified measure of how fast a vehicle or person is moving, even if they slow down or speed up at different times. Average speed does not reflect variations in speed during the trip—it’s a general measure from start to finish.
Let’s consider the other answer choices:
A. 4 km/hour is incorrect—it would mean the car took 60 hours to travel 240 km.
C. 36 km/hour is also incorrect—it would imply the trip took over 6.5 hours.
D. 960 km/hour is unreasonably high and more appropriate for an airplane than a car.
Therefore, the most logical and mathematically correct answer is:
