Page 1 of 2

EQUATIONS AND
INEQUALITIES

 How fast can trains travel?

 Page 1 of 2

CHAPTER

1
APPLICATION: High-Speed Trains

 Many countries now have high-

speed trains. Some of these trains
can travel 150 mi/h or faster. The
diagram below shows the average
speeds for a number of the world’s
fastest trains.

Fastest Trains in Each Country

Spain 209.1 km/h

U.S.A. 97.7 mi/h

Japan 261.8 km/h

Italy 164.9 km/h

France 254.3 km/h

England 111.8 mi/h

To find the fastest train, you need to convert all the

speeds to the same units of measure. The formula to
convert kilometers per hour to miles per hour is:
speed in mi/h = 0.621(speed in km/h)

Think & Discuss

1. Use the given formula to convert all the train
speeds to miles per hour.
2. How would you convert miles per hour to
kilometers per hour? Write a formula to do this.
3. Convert all the train speeds to kilometers per hour.

Learn More About It

You will calculate the average speed of another
Japanese high-speed train in Example 1 on p. 33.
NE
ER T
APPLICATION LINK Visit www.mcdougallittell.com
INT

for more information on high-speed trains.