I am helping a middle school student and I am bad with math. this is the word problem.?

So far so good.

15/5=3

25/5=5

The question wants "Where did the lightning strike, in relation to her house."

**Read to end first.

If you have a blank piece of paper and a compass? (has point on one end and pencil on other). If not a ruler would work. Mark a dot in the center of the page. Four inches up mark another dot. The one in the center is her house, and the top one is her friend. Draw a circle 3 inches around the center dot and 5 inches around the bottom of the second dot. Find the points of intersection of the two circles. One of these is the location of the lightning strike. You will find that it is either Straight East or Straight West. Since a third position which is not given is needed to triangulate the exact position based on this method, I would say the question is trying to confuse you by giving you unnecessary information.

At the very least, the correct answer would be "The lightning struck 3 miles from her house."

You might mention the information about the location being either directly east or west.

Don't be jumping to conclusions, yo!

How can we conclude the sound of thunder Mrs. Decker heard was the result of the flash of lightning she saw? Cloud to cloud lightning often occurs without thunder. Is it possible the sound she heard came from another bolt of lightning? Is it also possible the sound of thunder heard 25 seconds later over the phone also came from yet another bolt of lightning miles away? Should Mrs. Decker not know that she should not be using the telephone during a lightning storm?

Your answer is correct. The lighting struck 3 miles from her house the sound traveled 1 mile in 5 seconds, and 3 miles in 15 seconds. the sound then traveled for 25 seconds covering 5 miles.

Both my finance and I agree with your math.

Because 15 X 1/5 = 3

25 X 1/5 = 5

The answer is... Who cares its turkey time!!

JK.... I think you are correct the answer is 3 / 5

me too!!!!!!!!