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A man walks a certain distance with a certain speed. If he walks 1/2 km an hour faster, he takes 1 hour less. But, if he walks 1 km an hour slower, he takes 3 more hours. Find the distance covered by the man and his original rate of walking. |
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Answer» Let the actual speed of the man be x km/hr and y be the actual time taken by him in hours. So, we know that Distance covered = speed x distance ⇒ Distance = x × y = xy …………(i) First condition from the question says that, If the speed of the man increase by 1/2 km/hr, the journey time will reduce by 1 hour. Showing this using variables, we have ⇒ When speed is (x + 1/2) km/hr, time of journey = y – 1 hours Now, Distance covered = (x + 1/2) x (y – 1) km Since the distance is the same i.e xy we can equate it, [from (i)] xy = (x + 1/2) x (y – 1) And we finally get, -2x + y – 1 = 0 ………………(ii) From the second condition of the question, we have If the speed reduces by 1 km/hr then the time of journey increases by 3 hours. ⇒ When speed is (x-1) km/hr, time of journey is (y+3) hours Since, the distance covered = xy [from (i)] xy = (x-1)(y+3) ⇒ xy = xy – 1y + 3x – 3 ⇒ xy = xy + 3x – 1y – 3 ⇒ 3x – y – 3 = 0 ……………… (iii) From (ii) and (iii), the value of x can be calculated by (ii) + (iii) ⇒ x – 4 = 0 x = 4 Now, y can be obtained by using x = 4 in (ii) -2(4) + y – 1 = 0 ⇒ y = 1 + 8 = 9 Hence, putting the value of x and y in equation (i), we find the distance Distance covered = xy = 4 × 9 = 36 km Thus, the distance is 36 km and the speed of walking is 4 km/hr. |
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