The peregrine falcon can reach speeds of up to 200 miles per hour while diving to catch prey , making it the fastest animal on the planet when in a drive.
If a peregrine falcon, dove at its maximum speed for half a mile to catch prey , how many seconds would the dive take ? (Round your answer to the nearest second ).

Answer

9

Explanation

If x is the number of hours it will take the falcon to dive 0.5 mile, then the speed of 200 miles per hour can be used to create the proportion `"200 miles"/"1 hour"="0.5 mile"/"x hours"`. This proportion can be rewritten as x hours `="0.5 miles"/(200 "miles"/"hour")`, which gives x=0.0025 .
There are 60 minutes in 1 hour and 60 seconds in each minute, so there are (60)(60) = 3600 seconds in one hour. Therefore, 0.0025 hour is equivalent to (0.0025 hour) `("3600 seconds"/"1 hour")`=9 seconds.