Question

Samantha ran 5 miles in 42 minutes. Meghan ran 8 miles in 68 minutes. Who has a faster speed in minutes per mile?

Answer 1

Samantha is running at the faster speed.

Explanation:

Calculation

This is a simple case of comparison, though since:

`"speed" = "distance"/"time"`

A value for speed would have to be defined in terms of miles per minute (`"mi/min"`), rather than what has been stated in the question.

Samantha

`"speed" = 5/42`
`"speed" = 0.119"mi/min to 3 significant figures"`

Meghan

`"speed" = 8/68`
`"speed" = 0.118"mi/min to 3 significant figures"`

Comparison

From these two calculations, we can see that Samantha's speed is the greater quantity out of the two runners' speeds, since:

`0.119"mi/min" > 0.118"mi/min"`

Final Note

You could compare the two runners in terms of how long it would take them to run `1` mile, but this is not a comparison of speeds. Even so, Samantha would still be the one to cover a mile in the shortest time, which correlates to her travelling at a faster speed.