# An accident caused a traffic jam 12 miles long on a straight stretch of a two-lane highway (one...

## Question:

An accident caused a traffic jam 12 miles long on a straight stretch of a two-lane highway (one lane in each direction) How many cares do you think we're in the traffic jam?

## Finding the Number of Cars:

Since we need to find the number of cars, we need to find the average length of the car. And the solution is totally depends upon the length of the cars in the traffic jam. Therefore the formula can be derived as, \begin{align} \frac{\text{number of feet per mile}\times \text{number of given mile}}{\text{average length of the cars}}. \end{align} We need to substitute the values in the above formula to find the solution.

We can assume that the traffic jam caused by only the cars. Therefore the average length of the car is, {eq}14.7 \ feet. {/eq} And the length of the traffic jam is {eq}12 \ mile. {/eq} As we know, {eq}one \ mile=5280 \ feet. {/eq}

Hence the required solution is,

\begin{align} =\frac{5280\ \text{feet per mile}\times 12 \ mile}{14.7 \ feet} \\ =\frac{5280\times \:12}{14.7} \\ =\frac{63360}{14.7} \\ =4310.20 \\ \approx 4310 \end{align}

Therefore the number of cars for the traffic jam is {eq}4310 \ cars. {/eq}