When Will John Catch Up to Mary?

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SUMMARY

Mary leaves home at noon running at 7 m/s towards school, while her brother John departs 35 seconds later at a speed of 8 m/s. At the moment John starts running, Mary is already 245 meters away from the house. To determine when John catches up to Mary, two distance equations are established: dMary = d0 + vt and dJohn = d0 + vt, where t=0 can be set to either Mary's or John's departure time. The solution requires calculating the time and distance from the house when John reaches Mary.

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Mary left home at noon running at 7m/s towards school. Her brother John left 35 seconds later running at 8m/s. How much time passed and how far were they from the house when John caught up to Mary.



Homework Equations


My solution i tried was to the x-y graph. My notes saids I am supposed to use these formulas
d-d0=vt , d=vt

The Attempt at a Solution


I tried graphing as an university friend/student has told me but it just doesn't work out because when I get to john i have no clue to where i start on the graph to graph johns distance. All i know right now is that in 35 seconds, when john leaves Mary is at 245 metres.
 
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ok those equations are correct the thing is you need to have 2 equations for the distance.
One will represent Mary, another will represent John.

[tex]d_{Mary}=d_0+vt[/tex]
[tex]d_{John}=d_0+vt[/tex]

since velocity is constant a=0 and we loose that a/2*t^2 part.

So when should time start for these equations?
t=0 Mary leaves the house? or
t=0 John leaves the house, Mary has a 35s lead and is how many m away from the house already?
 
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