Effect of Average Speed on Time

If a car had increased its average speed for a 210 mile journey by 5 mph, the journey would have been completed in one hour less. What was the original speed of the car for the journey?

Here is the calculation of averages speed!

Calculation of the Original Speed!

What was the question?

Let S1 be the original speed and S2 be the modified speed and T1 be the time taken with speed S1 and T2 be the time taken with speed S2.

As per given data,

T1 - T2 = 1 hr.

D/S1 - D/S2 = 1 hr.

Here, D = 210 miles, S2 = S1 + 5,

210/S1 - 210/(S1+5) = 1

210(S1+5) - 210s = 1S1(S1+5)

S1^2 + 5S1 - 1050 = 0

(S1-30)(S1+35) = 0 

S1 = 30 or S1 = -35.

Since speed can't be negative, S1 = 30 mph.

Hence, the original speed is 30 mph and average speed is 30 + 5 = 35 mph.

 
With the original speed it would have taken 210/30 = 7 hours but with average speed it took only 210/35 = 6 hours saving 1 hour of time. 

The Story of The Indecisive Rower

A rower rows regularly on a river, from A to B and back. He’s got into the habit of rowing harder when going upstream, so that he goes twice as fast relative to the water as when rowing downstream. 

One day as he’s rowing upstream he passes a floating bottle. He ignores it at first but then gradually grows curious about its contents. After 20 minutes of arguing with himself he stops rowing and drifts for 15 minutes. Then he sets out after the bottle. After some time rowing downstream he changes his mind, turns around, and makes his way upstream again. But his curiosity takes hold once more, and after 10 minutes of rowing upstream he turns and goes after the bottle again. Again he grows ashamed of his childishness and turns around. But after rowing upstream for 5 minutes he can’t stand it any longer, rows downstream, and picks up the bottle 1 kilometer from the point where he’d passed it. 

How fast is the current?

That's the speed of water current!

Water Speed in The Story of The Indecisice Rower

What was the story?

Just for a moment let's assume the rower is rowing on a calm lake where water is stationary. Then, the bottle that he saw is also not moving & floating at one point.

In the case, he moves away (upstream in real case) from the bottle & comes back (downstream in real case) again to collect the bottle. He rows away from the bottle for 20 + 10 + 5 = 35 minutes. 

Remember his speed is double when he goes away from bottle than when he is coming towards the bottle. That's why he takes 35 X 2 = 70 minutes to come back at the point where bottle is floating.

Moreover, he drifts for 15 minutes in real case; for that let's assume he sits motionless for 15 minutes (in our assumed lake case) at some point in between.

So after leaving the bottle, he returns to the bottle after 35 + 15 + 70 = 120 minutes.

Now, assume this water in the lake is moving and this bottle is 'displaced' by 1 KM away from it's original position in 120 minutes. 

That means, the water is moving at the speed of 1 km / 120 minutes. That is the speed of water current is 1/2 kmph.  

"Share The Walk; Share The Ride!"

You and I have to travel from Startville to Endville, but we have only one bicycle between us. So we decide to leapfrog: We’ll leave Startville at the same time, you walking and I riding. I’ll ride for 1 mile, and then I’ll leave the bicycle at the side of the road and continue on foot. When you reach the bicycle you’ll ride it for 1 mile, passing me at some point, then leave the bicycle and continue walking. And so on — we’ll continue in this way until we’ve both reached the destination.

Will this save any time? 

You say yes: Each of us is riding for part of the distance, and riding is faster than walking, so using the bike must increase our average speed.

I say no: One or the other of us is always walking; ultimately every inch of the distance between Startville and Endville is traversed by someone on foot. So the total time is unchanged — leapfrogging with the bike is no better than walking the whole distance on foot.

Who’s right?

Look who is right in the case! 

"Okay, I'm Wrong in the Case!"

Where I went wrong?

That's going to save time for sure.

Let's assume that the distance between Startville and Endville is 2 miles. And suppose we walk at the same speed of 4 mph and ride bicycle at the speed of 12 mph.

Then I will travel for first 1 mile in 5 minutes leave the bicycle and start walking thereafter. You take 15 minutes to reach at the point to pick up bicycle and ride next mile. For next mile, I need 15 minutes as I am walking & you need only 5 minutes ride on bicycle. So exactly after 20 minutes we will reach at Endville.

And what if we had walked entire 2 miles distance? It would have taken 30 minutes for us to reach at the destination.

One thing you must have noticed, each of us walked for 1 mile only and ride on bicycle for other mile which saved 10 minutes of our journey. Imagine it as if we had 2 bicycles where we ride 1 mile in 5 minutes, leave bicycles and walk next mile in another 15 minutes.

So my argument in the case is totally wrong. It would have been correct if I had waited for you after finishing 1 mile ride on bicycle and then started to walk next mile. 

In that case, you will reach at the destination in 20 minutes but I need 30 minutes as I wasted 10 minutes in middle. 

Conclusion: 

My argument - 

"One or the other of us is always walking; ultimately every inch of the distance between Startville and Endville is traversed by someone on foot."

tells only half story.

Yes, ultimately every inch of the distance between Startville and Endville is traversed by someone on foot but the distance that each of us walk is equal though different parts of journey. And for the rest of distance we ride on bicycle where total time required for journey is saved.

Help The Policeman in Finding The Culprit

Late one evening, a car ran over a pedestrian in a narrow bystreet and drove away without stopping. A policeman who saw the vehicle leave the scene of the accident reported it moving at very high speed. The accident itself was witnessed by six bystanders. They provided the following conflicting accounts of what had happened:

• It was a blue car, driven by a man;
• The car was moving at high speed, its headlights were turned off;
• The car did have license plates, it wasn’t going very fast;
• It was a Toyota, it’s headlights were turned off;
• The car didn’t have license plates, the driver was a woman;
• It was a gray Ford.

When the the car and its driver were finally apprehended, it turned out that only one of the six eyewitnesses gave a fully correct description. Each of the other five provided one true and one false piece of information.

Keeping that in mind, can you determine the following:

— What was the car’s brand?

— What color was the car?

— Was the car going fast or slow?

— Did it have license plates?

— Were its headlights turned on?

— Was the driver a man or a woman? 

Read all the answers here!

To Help The Policeman in Finding The Culprit

But why he needs help? 

Let's recollect all the statements made by all 6 bystanders.

 1.It was a blue car, driven by a man.

 2.The car was moving at high speed, its headlights were turned off.

 3.The car did have license plates, it wasn’t going very fast.

 4.It was a Toyota, it’s headlights were turned off.

 5.The car didn’t have license plates, the driver was a woman.

 6 It was a gray Ford (It was gray car; it was Ford).

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If we believe in report made by Policeman where he stated that the car was moving at very high speed; then the part of the Statement 3 made by third bystander where he says car wasn't going fast turns out to be false. Hence, other part of his statement must be true. So the car must have license plates.

If the car has license plates; then 1st part of the Statement 5 will be false & other part must be true. Hence, the driver must be a woman.

If the driver was a woman, then 2nd part of the Statement 1 turns false making part 1 to be true. Hence, the color of the car must be blue.

If the car was at high speed then the entire Statement 2 must be true or it's 2nd part must be false.

Let's assume 2nd part of the statement 2 be false. Then 2nd part of statement 4 also must be false leaving 1st part to be true. That means the car was Toyota. But this makes statement 6 entirely false (as we already know color of car is blue). This contradicts the crucial data given - Each of the other five provided one true and one false piece of information. In the case, there will be no eyewitness giving full correct description.

So the entire Statement 2 must be true. Hence, the car was with it's headlight off.

If headlights were turned off then 2nd part of the Statement 4 must be true and 1st part false. That means, car wasn't Toyota.

And if car wasn't Toyota, as per Statement 6, it must be Ford but not of gray color.
This matches our early conclusion where we concludes color of the car was blue.

Conclusions:

1.What was the car’s brand?

   - Ford

2.What color was the car?

   - Blue

3.Was the car going fast or slow?

   - Fast

4.Did it have license plates?

   - Yes, it had.

 

5.Were its headlights turned on?

   - No, those were off.

6.Was the driver a man or a woman?

   - A woman. 

A Railway And Cyclist Crossing

A road runs parallel to a railway until it bends to cross it, as shown. A man normally cycles to work along the road at a constant speed of 12 mph, and when he reaches the crossing he’s normally overtaken by a train traveling in the same direction. One day he was 25 minutes late for work and found that the train passed him 6 miles before the crossing. 

What was the speed of the train?

Skip To Know The Speed Of The Train! 

To Cross The Cyclist...

What was the scenario?

 Let's suppose he reaches the crossing at 9:00 AM. Usually at 8:30 AM he is at point A, 6 miles before the usual crossing point B (speed of 12 mph, means 6 mile per half hour).

On the day on which he was late by 25 minutes, he must be again at point A (i.e. 6 miles ahead of usual crossing point B) at 8:55 AM. So at this point, both train and man were at the same point A. And the train as everyday, reaches point B at 9:00 AM. That means, it travels 6 miles in 5 minutes. Hence, train must be traveling at 72 mph.  

The Dog Of The Commander

A long and straight row of soldiers is marching with constant speed. The dog of the commander runs along the row from the end till the beginning, from the beginning till the end, from the end till the beginning etc. This takes always 2 minutes, 1 minute, 2 minutes, etc. 

At some point the soldiers have to pass a very small bridge. However, the commander does not trust the strength bridge completely. He wonders how much time it will take them to pass the bridge when they stay marching with the same speed. 

How much time is that?  

You can skip to the answer! 

Passing A Very Small Bridge

What is the question?

For march of soldiers to pass any point, there must be first man crossing that point first and then later the last man should cross the same point. 

Now the dog runs from the first to last man in 1 minute, then runs back to first man in 2 minutes and again back to last man in 1 minutes. That means the dog must be at the same point where he started journey from first man. In other words, the dog has run for 2 minutes in both the directions. Hence, he must be at the same point after 4 minutes.

Interestingly, the dog was at first man when started & after 4 minutes ended at the last man of the march. Since dog is at the same point after 4 minutes, the entire march of soldiers is crossed that point in 4 minutes as first and last man have crossed that point.

The same when applied to a very small bridge which can be assumed as a point, we can say that it requires 4 minutes for soldiers to cross it.
 

Correlation Of Playback Speed & Duration

Recently youtube added speed control on video playback on mobile app. Previously it was only for desktop browsers. Now, if I increase the speed to 1.25 then how much time I would save while viewing particular video? Would it take 25% less time than original video? 

Interpreting it like that way is totally wrong way. Without going too much into technical terms, let's name 'content' for the whatever video has for it's entire duration. One thing is sure with playback speed of increased the duration for which we would view is reduced. The (oversimplified) formula in this case should be,

Time Taken For The Journey

A RED ant is sitting on one side of a table (point X) and a BLACK ant is sitting on the opposite side of the table (point Y).

Now both of them decides to exchange their places and starts crawling. On the way, both of the ants meet and after that, it takes 20 seconds for the RED ant to move to point Y and it takes 5 seconds for the BLACK ant to reach point X.

Find out the total time taken by the RED and the BLACK ant to make the journey.

Here are steps to calculate! 

Source 

Calculation of Time For The Journey

What was the journey?

Let the speed of RED ant is R & that of BLACK ant is B

Let time taken by them to meet be T.

Now we will apply the basic formula of distance:

Distance = Speed * Time.

The RED ant travels R T distance before meeting and 20 R after the meeting.

The BLACK ant travels B T distance before meeting and 5 B after the meeting.

Now as per the question,The distance traveled by RED ant before they both meet will be equal to the distance covered by BLACK ant after they meet. We can say the same for the vice versa case as well.

Thus,

RT = 5B and BT = 20R i.e. B = 20R/T, putting in RT = 5B

R T = [20R/T] * 5

RT = 100R/T

T^2 = 100

T = 10.

Thus the RED ant will require 10 + 20 = 30 seconds to travel the distance.

And the BLACK ant will take 10 + 5 = 15 seconds to travel the distance. 

Finding The Average Speed

A man drives his car to the office at 20miles/hr. After reaching the office, he realizes that it's a new year holiday so he went back home at a speed of 30miles/hr.

Discounting the time spent in the stoppage what was his average speed of his journey?

Right way to calculate the average speed! 

Source 

Right Way To Find The Average Speed

What was the given data?

If you are finding average speed of 2 given speeds as (Speed 1 + Speed 2)/2 then you are getting tricked by questioner. The speed itself is a distance covered per unit i.e. Speed = Distance/Time. Calculating average speed like that means,you are doing like,

Average Speed = (Speed1 + Speed2)/2
                     
                      = (Distance1/Time1 + Distance 2/Time2)/2              
            
So you need to find the total distance traveled & the total time taken to complete the entire journey.It should be like,


Average Speed = Total Distance/Total Time

                       = (Distance1 + Distance2)/(Time1 + Time2)

In the given problem, let D be the distance traveled by car to the office. Let T1 be the time required to go to the office & T2 be the time to return back.

Since, Speed = Distance / Time, Time = Distance / Speed.

Hence, 

T1 = D / 20

T2 = D / 30

Now,

Total distance traveled =  D + D = 2D, Total Time taken = T1 + T2

Hence,

Average Speed = 2D / (T1 + T2)

Average Speed = 2D / (D/20 + D/30)

Average Speed = 2D / (50D/600)

Average Speed = 2D / (D / 12)

Average Speed = 24 miles/hr.  

Therefore, the average speed of the journey is 24 miles/hr not 25 miles/hr [(20 + 30)/2].

  
 

Journey of The Dog

Jessica, Warner decided to meet & left their home. And a puppy starts walking down a road. They started at the same time. Their homes are located at 33 KM away from each other.

• Warner walks at 5 miles/hour.
• Jessica walks at 6 miles/hour.

  

The puppy runs from Warner to Jessica and back again with a constant speed of 10 miles/hour.

 
The puppy does not slow down on the turn. How far does the puppy travel in till Jessica and Warner meet?

Know here the distance traveled by puppy! 

Distance in The Dog's Journey!

What was the puzzle? 

First thing on which we need to focus on in how much time Jessica and Warner would meet. Since they are moving towards each other the distance of 33 KM is being covered at 5 + 6 = 11 KM/h.  So they are going to meet each other in 33/11 = 3 hours. Now everything else here can deceive you to find distance covered by puppy. All you need to do is stick to the basics.

Speed = Distance / Time

Distance = Speed * Time 

Distance covered by Puppy = Speed of Puppy * Time for which it traveled.

Distance covered by Puppy = 10 * 3 = 30 KM 

So Puppy travels 30 KM to & fro until Jessica and Warner meets. 

 

Finding Horses For Courses

There are 25 horses among which you need to find out the fastest 3 horses. You can conduct race among at most 5 to find out their relative speed. At no point you can find out the actual speed of the horse in a race. Find out how many races are required to get the top 3 horses. 

Click here for logical answer! 

Source