The men's world record (as of 2007) for swimming 1500 m in a long course pool is 14 min 34.56 s. At this rate, how many seconds would it take the men's world record holder to swim 0.750 mi? (1 mi = 1609 m)

703.58 s

Explanation:

Convert the time to seconds and distance to meters:

14 min 34.56 s = 14 * 60 + 34.56 = 874.56 s

0.750 mi * (1609 m / mi) = 1206.75 m

Now write a proportion:

874.56 s / 1500 m = x / 1206.75 m

x = 703.58 s

It would take the swimmer 703.58 seconds.