Driving to the store...

Algebra Level 3

You drive to the store at 20 mph and return by the same route at 30 mph. Discounting the time spent at the store, what was your average speed?


The answer is 24.

This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and, finally, (c) loading the non-javascript version of this page . We're sorry about the hassle.

3 solutions

Lew Sterling Jr
Oct 19, 2014

Let d be the distance to the store, T be the time it gets to get there, t be the time it takes to get back, and A be the average speed (which is what we want to find out). As we know from elementary mathematics, distance equals rate times time:

  d = 20T
  T = d/20

  d = 30t
  t = d/30

Now that we have expressions for T and t, we can come up with an equation that describes the round trip:

 2d = A(T + t)
 2d = A(d/20 + d/30)
 2d = A(3d/60 + 2d/60)
 2d = A(5d/60)
  A = 120d/5d
  A = 24

So the average speed is 24 mph. If this seems strange to you, consider that more time is spent traveling at 20 mph than time spent at 30 mph, so the "20 mph" figure should count more toward the average.

direct formula=(2s1s2)/(s1+s2) when distance is constant. On solving, ans=24 mph

Hey, Can you please share us from where you find this formula m

Keval Gohil - 5 years, 11 months ago

s p e e d = d t ; t = d s p e e d speed=\dfrac{d}{t}; t=\dfrac{d}{speed}

a v e r a g e s p e e d = t o t a l d i s t a n c e t o t a l t i m e = d + d d 20 + d 30 = 2 d d 12 = 2 d ( 12 d ) = average~speed=\dfrac{total~distance}{total~time}=\dfrac{d+d}{\dfrac{d}{20}+\dfrac{d}{30}}=\dfrac{2d}{\dfrac{d}{12}}=2d\left(\dfrac{12}{d}\right)= 24 m p h \boxed{24mph}

0 pending reports

×

Problem Loading...

Note Loading...

Set Loading...