How Far Does the Bird Travel Before the Trains Collide?

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Homework Help Overview

The problem involves two trains approaching each other on a straight track and a bird flying between them. The trains are initially 57 km apart, each traveling at a speed of 32 km/h, while the bird flies at a speed of 60 km/h. The objective is to determine the total distance the bird travels before the trains collide.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Assumption checking, Problem interpretation

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss the initial setup of the problem, including the speeds of the trains and the bird. Some express confusion about how to begin solving the problem, while others suggest calculating the time until the trains collide as a starting point.

Discussion Status

The discussion is ongoing, with some participants offering hints about calculating the collision time as a means to find the distance traveled by the bird. There is no explicit consensus yet, but a potential approach has been suggested.

Contextual Notes

One participant notes a lack of initial work or calculations, indicating uncertainty about how to approach the problem. The nature of the bird's behavior is also questioned, though this does not directly impact the mathematical aspect of the problem.

doyle14
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Two trains, each having a speed of 32 km/h, are headed at each other on the same straight track. A bird that can fly 60 km/h flies off the front of one train when they are 57 km apart and heads directly for the other train. On reaching the other train it flies directly back to the first train, and so forth. (We have no idea why a bird would behave in this way.) What is the total distance the bird travels before the trains collide?

Any help/methods to solving this would be greatly appreciated...thank you!
 
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oh and btw...i don't have any work down because i don't really know how to start the problem...it's a little confusing...any directions/methods would be appreciated...
 
Hints:
calculate the time it takes for two trains to collide first, this is also the time the little bird fly in air... since you know the speed of the bird, its distance travels is simply d=vt
 
thank you very much
 

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