The hare and the tortoise
Problem
Most of you will know the story of the hare and the tortoise with the moral tag "slow and steady wins the race".
In this version
- The race is $10$ km (kilometres) long.
- The hare runs at $10$ times the speed of the tortoise.
- The tortoise take $2$ hours and $30$ minutes to complete the race.
- The hare arrives at the finish $30$ seconds after the tortoise.
For how long does the hare sleep?
Getting Started
There are several approaches to this problem. Finding out how many kilometres an hour the tortoise travelled at is a very good starting point for comparing the speeds and time taken to cover the course by the two animals.
(The speed is the number of kilometres in an hour that is travelled.)Student Solutions
Yu Wang from Bern in Switzerland sent this:
The tortoise takes 2 hrs 30 mins to complete the race. Divide that by 10 to give you 15 mins (this is how long the hare takes), substract 15 mins from 2 hrs 30mins and then add the 30 seconds because the hare finishes 30 seconds after the tortoise.
T (hare ) = 2 hrs 30 mins 30 secs -15 mins So, the hare sleeps for 2 hours 15 minutes and 30 seconds.
Teachers' Resources
The Hare and the Tortoise
Most of you will know the story of the hare and the tortoise with the moral tag "slow and steady wins the race".
In this version
- The race is $10$ km (kilometres) long.
- The hare runs at $10$ times the speed of the tortoise.
- The tortoise take $2$ hours and $30$ minutes to complete the race.
- The hare arrives at the finish $30$ seconds after the tortoise.
For how long does the hare sleep?