A person walks to school at 3 mph and returns walking 5 mph. The total trip took 1 hour. What is the distance the person walked?

A person walks at a rate of 3mph to a destination.  The
person walks at a rate of 5mph on the return trip.  The round trip takes 1 hour.  We are
to find the distance walked.

=>  let time walked at
3mph = t

=>  let time walked at 5mph = 1 -
t

=>  We choose to solve for t (the time walked at
3mph) using the distance formula.  We know that the distance on the first part of the
trip is equal to the distance of the return trip.

=>
d = rt

=. distance walked at 3mph = distance walked at 5
mph

=> 3t = 5( 1 -
t)

=> 3t = 5 -
5t

=> 8t = 5

=>
t = 5/8 hour

We now substitute  5/8 hour for t into the
distance formula.

=> d =
rt

=> d =
3(5/8)

=> d = 1 7/8
miles

The walked on each part of the trip was
1 7/8 miles.

The total
distance walked to and from was 3 3/4 miles.