This problem looks at the epic journeys of two young men whose fortitude knew no bounds.
In \(1980\), Terry Fox set out to run across Canada in order to raise money for cancer research, in what is called the Marathon of Hope. He planned to run the entire length of the Trans-Canada Highway, which is \(7821\) km. Terry Fox ran an average of \(42\) km every day, but had to stop after \(143\) days and \(5373\) km. If he had been able to complete his journey and had continued at the same pace, how many days would it have taken him to complete the remainder of his run across Canada?
In \(1985\), Rick Hansen, the Man in Motion, wheeled around the world in his wheelchair in order to help people understand the importance of a world without barriers for people with disabilities. Starting on March \(21\), \(1985\), and finishing on May \(22\), \(1987\), he went through \(34\) countries and travelled a total of \(40\,075\) km. On average, how many kilometres did he travel on each day of his world tour?
The Trans-Canada Highway is \(7821\) km long and Terry Fox completed \(5373\) km. Thus, \(7821-5373=2448\) km remain. If Terry Fox travelled at \(42\) km per day, then since \(2448 \div 42 \approx 58.286\), it would have taken him \(59\) days to complete his run across Canada.
To calculate the number of days between March \(21\), \(1985\) and May \(22\), \(1987\), we will first calculate the number of days between March \(21\), \(1985\) and March \(20\), \(1987\), inclusive, and then calculate the number of days between March \(21\), \(1987\) and May \(22\), \(1987\), inclusive.
Since neither \(1986\) nor \(1987\) were leap years, the number of days between March \(21\), \(1985\) and March \(20\), \(1987\) is \(2 \times 365=730\).
To calculate the number of days between March \(21\), \(1987\) and May \(22\), \(1987\), we will look at the number of days in each month. There are \(11\) days from March \(21\) to March \(31\). April has \(30\) days, and there are \(22\) days from May \(1\) to May \(22\). This is a total of \(11+30+22=63\) days.
Thus, in total, Rick Hansen travelled for \(730+63=793\) days. Since he travelled \(40\,075\) km in total, this means he travelled on average \(40\,075 \div 793\approx 50.5\) km per day.