Tuesday, 27 January 2015

algebra precalculus - Time and distance: Buses traveling in opposite directions



Two buses starting from two different places A and B simultaneously, travel towards each other and meet after a specified time. If the bus starting from A is delayed by 20 minutes, they meet 12 minutes later than the usual time. If the speed of the bus starting from A is 60km/hr, what is the speed of the second bus?




My attempt:



Let t be the usual time of meeting and s(A) and s(B) be the speeds of Bus A and Bus B respectively, then



Applying relative velocity concept (stopping bus B i.e. taking it's speed =0 and adding it to speed of A), i got:



s(A)= 60 (given)



(60 + s(B))t = d (distance between the buses)




Now if bus A is delayed by 20 mins, then B's travelling time is 20 mins more than A's to cover the same distance.



t(B) = t(A) + 20/60



hence, t(B)= t(A) + 1/5



distance covered by A = t(A) * 60



distance covered by B = t(B) * s(B) = (t(A) +1/5)*s(B)




The problem: How do i relate the delay of 12 mins in their meeting time?


Answer



ADDED. Solution using your equations and making the necessary corrections and additions.



(60 + s(B))t = d



distance covered by A = t(A) * 60



distance covered by B = t(B) * s(B) = (t(A) +1/5)*s(B)




(distance between buses = d = distance covered by A + distance covered by B)




t(B) = t(A) + 20/60



hence, t(B) = t(A) + 1/5




Correction: 20/60 = 1/3; hence, t(B) = t(A) + 1/3.





How do i relate the delay of 12 mins in their meeting time?




t(B) = t + 1/5.






Let d be the distance from A to B, vA=60 km/hr be the speed of

the bus departing from A and vB the speed of the bus departing from B. If both buses start simultaneously, vAt is the distance traveled by bus A and vBt is the the distance traveled by bus B, where t is the usual time they spend to meet each other. We have



vAt+vBt=d.



(The units have to be consistent: e.g. speed in km/hr, time in hours and distance in km). If the bus starting from A is delayed by 20 minutes =13 hour,
then bus A travels the distance vA(t1/3+1/5) and bus B travels vB(t+1/5), because they meet 12 minutes = 15 hour later than the usual time t.



vA(t1/3+1/5)+vB(t+1/5)=d.



Equate both equations




vAt+vBt=vA(t1/3+1/5)+vB(t+1/5),



and simplify



215vA15vB=0.



Since vA is 60km/hr, we have



215(60)15vB=0,




whose solution is vB=40 km/hr.


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