To Bart Or Not To Bart

Algebra Level 1

Ron lives in San Francisco and wonders if it would be faster to take the train or his car to work. The distance from his house to his office is 3 miles, and the train station is right next to his house. The car goes across town at an average speed of 10 miles per hour including stoplights and traffic. The train goes at an average speed of 65 miles per hour but has to make 5 stops each lasting 3 minutes. Which form of transit should he use if he wants to get to fast as fast as possible?

The car is faster. They are the same. The train is faster. There is not enough information to tell.

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20 solutions

Julio Reyes
Feb 18, 2014

Train goes 65 miles per 1 hr or about 65 miles per 60 min , so it will take the train about 2.8 min to travel 3 miles, plus 5*3 = 15 min for the stops. Total time for the train is about 17.8 min .

3 miles 60 min 65 miles 2.8 min 15 + 2.8 = 17.8 min 3 \text{ miles} \cdot \frac{60\text { min}}{65\text{ miles}} \approx 2.8\text{ min} \quad 15 + 2.8 = 17.8 \text{ min}

Car travels at 10 miles per 1 hr or 10 miles per 60 min . It would take the car 18 min to travel 3 miles.

3 miles 60 min 10 miles = 18 min 3 \text{ miles} \cdot \frac{60 \text{ min}}{10 \text{ miles}} = 18 \text{ min}

So the train is faster.

the mistake i made is that i rounded off the 2.8... argg annoyed

Fashanu Willies Kamba-Gotora - 7 years, 3 months ago

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Same mistake!

Meet Nisar - 7 years, 3 months ago

same here. haha

Antero Viktor Mangubat - 7 years, 2 months ago

In reality, the car would be a little faster because he has to wait for the train to move at his station but according to maths its the train which is faster

Sindhur Aellipeddi - 7 years, 3 months ago

i'm not a calculator .so i rounded up and considered as both are same

Rasmi Ranjan Rath - 7 years, 3 months ago

Does reaching 0.2 minutes earlier really matter? :D

Or is it we Maths lovers tend to take account these minute intervals?

Kou$htav Chakrabarty - 7 years, 3 months ago

the difference of 0.2 min is 12 sec, might not be enough for him to get to the train station, though close to his house, plus wait to take the train...., thus the car might still be faster.

Koyejo Oduola - 7 years, 3 months ago

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well, in exchange, there is the time spent, after locking the house, on leaving the garage and finding a spot to park near his job.

Arthur Missao - 7 years, 2 months ago

"... ... ...the train station is right next to his house." but the distance between office and train station is not mentioned in the problem, so i chose "There is not enough information to tell"

maria ahmed - 7 years, 1 month ago

I will go with this solution

Sudha Menon - 7 years, 3 months ago

for car it is 18 min n for train it is 15 + 60*3/65 so train is faster

Nishant Kumar - 7 years, 3 months ago

train is faster

Ishaan Sachdeva - 7 years, 3 months ago

i solved this way...

Paritosh Ghosh - 7 years, 3 months ago

train is faster than car

Ranjit Kumar Das - 7 years, 3 months ago

same with me

Eka Kurniawan - 7 years, 3 months ago

oooo...

Hibaturrahman Hibaturrahman - 7 years, 3 months ago

according to scientific notetion'they are not same'?

waqas khan - 7 years, 2 months ago

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Not sure what do you mean by according to scientific notation? There really isn't a need to use scientific notation, but if we did the values do not change so the result would be the same.

Scientific notation is just a way to notate really large or small numbers, it should not change the values unless your reduce the degree of precision by rounding.

I'm guessing, if you were calculating it in hours, then somewhere in your calculations a value got rounded.

Julio Reyes - 7 years, 2 months ago

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k my friend can you accept my friend ship?

waqas khan - 7 years, 2 months ago

If you may know the speed is 65m/hour which is 65/60 min.

You switched them so your answer is wrong. According to this train will take 17.77 mins and the car would 17.64 mins

Muhammad Amir - 7 years, 2 months ago

I got it wrong!!

Mariam Sokkar - 7 years ago
Prasun Biswas
Feb 18, 2014

The distance to travel ( d ) = 3 (d)=3 miles and speed of car = 10 =10 miles/hr while speed of train = 65 =65 miles/hr but train takes 5 5 stops each for 3 3 minutes. We know that Time = Distance Speed =\frac{\text{Distance}}{\text{Speed}} . Now ---

Time taken if gone by car = ( d 10 ) h r = 3 10 hr = 3 × 26 10 × 26 = 78 260 hr =(\frac{d}{10}) hr =\frac{3}{10}\text{ hr }=\frac{3\times 26}{10\times 26}= \boxed{\frac{78}{260}\text{ hr }}

Time taken if gone by train = ( d 65 ) h r + ( 3 × 5 ) min = ( 3 65 + 15 60 ) h r = 3 65 + 1 4 = 12 + 65 260 = 77 260 hr =(\frac{d}{65}) hr +(3\times 5)\text{ min } =(\frac{3}{65}+\frac{15}{60}) hr =\frac{3}{65}+\frac{1}{4} = \frac{12+65}{260}=\boxed{\frac{77}{260}\text{ hr }}

We clearly can see that the train takes the least time out of the two modes of transport and so the answer is The train is faster.

Shubham Bajpai
Feb 19, 2014

Distance = 3 miles Speed of car = 10 miles per hour Speed of train = 65 miles per hour

Time taken by car = Distance/Speed of car =3/10 hours 1 hour = 60 mins 3/10 hours = 3/10 x 60

Time taken by car= 18 mins

Time Taken by Train = Distance/Speed of Train + Stop Time at each station = 3/65 hours +(3 x 5)minutes 1 hour =60 mins 3/65 hours = (3/65) x 60 mins

Time Taken by Train = 180/65 +15 mins

Hence train takes less time

Shaun Loong
Feb 18, 2014

T i m e = D i s t a n c e S p e e d Time=\frac{Distance}{Speed} . The time taken to travel to work by car is: T i m e = 3 m 10 m h 1 ( 60 m i n h 1 ) Time=\frac{3m}{10mh^{-1}}(60minh^{-1}) T i m e = 18 m i n Time=18min

On the other hand, time taken to travel to work by train is: T i m e = 3 m 65 m h 1 ( 60 m i n h 1 ) + 15 m i n Time=\frac{3m}{65mh^{-1}}(60minh^{-1})+15min T i m e 17.77 m i n Time\approx 17.77min

Therefore, the train is faster.

thats right

Dante Yarao - 7 years, 3 months ago
Uday Bolla
Feb 22, 2014

distance=speed*time'

car takes him to office in a time of t=(3/10)*60 minutes=18 min

train takes him to office in atime of t'=[(3/65) 60+5 3]minutes=17.76 min

so he chooses train to travel

Sourakanti Nandy
Feb 22, 2014

the train runs 60 mile per hour....which mean it takes time for 3 mile is 2.72 minute+(3*5) minutes=17.72 minute for stop......but the car take 18 minute..so train is faster...

Ankit Dhanda
Feb 21, 2014

distance=3 miles Avg. speed of car =10 miles/hr time taken = distance/speed =3/10 hrs = 0.3 hrs avg speed of train =65 miles/ hr Stopping time =5*3 min=15 mins total time taken =distance/speed +stopping time =3/65 + 15/60(hours) =0.296 hrs therefore train is faster.!!!

Jannatul Nayeem
Feb 21, 2014

Train and car go 3 miles. The train's velocity 65 miles per hour. So, it needs 3/65=0.046h =2.76m So, it needs total=(5*3)+2.76=17.76m

The car's velocity =10miles per hour So, it needs=3/10 hour =0.3hour =18min

Santosh Patil
Feb 21, 2014

infect train is more faster than the car it travels 60 divided by 65 i.e equal to 0.902 and person have to travel 3miles 3 0.902 equals to 2.7 5min to stops than 5 3=15 i.e 15+2.7=17.7 similar for car 60 /10 equals to 6and he have to travel 3 miles than 3*6=18min takes to travel by car

Shahriar Ahmed
Feb 18, 2014

for car t=s/v=0.3hr=18min, for train t=s/v hr +5*3min=.046hr+15min=2.76min+15min=17.76min

Naren Bauri
Feb 18, 2014

speed of car is 10mile/hour so to travel 3 mile the car will take (3 60)/10=18min but the train will take (3 60)/65=2.79 min+5*3min of 5 stops }=17.79

Francisco Udaundo
Feb 18, 2014

Since t=d/s, t for the car should be 3mi/10 mi/h=0.3 h and t for the train should be 3 mi/65 mi/h=3/65 h + 15/60 h =0.197 hence, the train is faster

but the train will take him to the station, while the car will directly take him to his office. So car is better transit

Viraj Mohile - 7 years, 3 months ago

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yeah dats true..

shelli das - 7 years, 3 months ago

rite

shelli das - 7 years, 3 months ago

(I rounded most of my answers, factors etc.) 1) Car...10 miles divided by 3 = 3miles (distance) Now I do the same operation for the time 1 hour divided by 3 = 20 min. (Time it would take to go by car for 3 miles) 2) Train...65 miles divided by aprx. 20= 3 miles Now I do the same operation with the time 1 hour divided by aprx. 20 = 3 min. 3)Compare....3 miles/20 min. of car vs 3 miles/18 minutes of train ( Although the train stops only every 13 minutes and the person would have already gotten off before then, if we add the 15 minutes taken in total of all the stops, the 3/18 still beats 3/20) Therefore the train is faster.

Abbas Arain
Mar 18, 2014

Train goes 65 miles per 1 hr or about 65 miles per 60 min,and Stops, 5x3 = 15 min for the stops so it will take 0.9333 min for one mile and about 2.8 min to travel 3 miles and 15 min of stop Total time for the train is about 17.8 min.

Car travels at 10 miles per 1 hr or 6 min for 1 mile and car would take the car 18 min to travel 3 miles.

So the train is faster.

Bhavesh Bhagde
Mar 17, 2014

train travels in 3miles 60min/65miles=2.77 5 3+2.77=17.77min and car travels in 3miles*60min/10miles=18min, so the train is faster

car: t = v/d = 3/10 = 0.3 hr x 60 mins = 18 mins

train: t = v/d = 3/65 = 0.046 hr x 60 mins = 2.76 mins + (3 mins stop x 5 stops) = 17.76 mins

train is faster.

Muhamed Medo
Mar 6, 2014

as the speed of the car = 10miles/h(60 min) so it takes 6 minutes to cover one mile ,so it takes 18 minutes to cover 3 miles and as the train has speed 65 miles / h so it takes 0.923 minutes to cover one mile and take 2.769 minutes to cover 3 miles and since it has to stop 5 times for 3 minutes(15 minutes) so it take 17.9 minutes and because of that the train is faster

Nafi Us-Sabbir
Mar 5, 2014

let d be the distance(3 Mile), t1 be the time needed for train and t2 be the time needed for car, u1 be the speed of train and u2 ,speed of car

for train, T1 = t1 + (15/60) hours where t1 = d / u1 so, T1 = 0.29 hour for Car , T2 = d/u2

so T2 = 0.3 hour as T1<T2. ans is T1

NemChandra Jain
Mar 5, 2014

In Calculation Train is faster , but in Actually Car is faster because Distant from Station to Home Asn Similarly station to Office And purcahsing Of tickets wait for Train .then Car is Home To Office directly . There Is Time Saving to Go in car

You are right but these are neglected

Abbas Arain - 7 years, 2 months ago
Muhammad Abdeen
Mar 2, 2014

V(speed) =d(distance) /t(time) t=d/v Vcar =10m/h. Vtrain=65m/h. d=3 miles t(car) =3/10=0.3 hour t(train) =3/65=0.04615 hour + 0.25 =0.029615 hour.. Which is less than the time the car takes the0.25 hour we added to the train time is the. Time the train takes in stations.. (3 5=15 minutes) = 0.25 hour..

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