Vimla starts for office every day at am and reaches exactly on time if she drives at her usual speed of . She is late by minutes if she drives at . One day, she covers two-thirds of her distance to office in onethirds of her usual time to reach office, and then stops for minutes. The speed, in km/hr, at which she should drive the remaining distance to reach office exactly on time is
Vimla starts for office every day at am and reaches exactly on time if she drives at her usual speed of . She is late by minutes if she drives at . One day, she covers two-thirds of her distance to office in onethirds of her usual time to reach office, and then stops for minutes. The speed, in km/hr, at which she should drive the remaining distance to reach office exactly on time is
Solution
When Vimla drives at different speeds, the distance to office remains the same - only the time changes.
Let's say her usual time to reach office is t minutes.
At usual speed: Distance = 40 × t km
At slower speed: Distance = 35 × (t + 6) km
Since the distance is the same in both cases:
minutes
We're using the fact that Distance = Speed × Time, and since distance is constant, we can equate the two expressions.
Distance = Speed × Time = 40 × 42 minutes
Converting to hours: 42 minutes = hours = hours
Distance = 40 × = 28 km
On this day, Vimla covers:
Distance covered: of total distance = × 28 = km
Time taken: of usual time = × 42 = 14 minutes
Stop time: 8 minutes
Time already used = 14 minutes (driving) + 8 minutes (stop) = 22 minutes
Time remaining to reach on time = 42 - 22 = 20 minutes
Distance remaining = Total distance - Distance already covered
= 28 -
= -
= km
Time available = 20 minutes = hours = hour
Required speed = Distance ÷ Time = ÷ = × = 28 km/hr
We need to drive at 28 km/hr for the remaining distance.
In speed-time problems, always remember that when the distance is constant, we can set up equations using Speed₁ × Time₁ = Speed₂ × Time₂.