Question

On a 120 km track, a train travels the first 40 km at a uniform speed of 30 km/h. How fast must the train travel the next 80 km, so as to average 60 km/h for the entire trip.

Answer 1

Train travels first 40 km at speed of 30 km/hr.
Time taken by train to cover this distance is = distance/speed = 40/30 = 4/3 hr.
Let speed of train to cover next 80 km is v .
Then time taken by train to cover these 80 km is 80/v.
Total time becomes T = 4/3 +80/v = ( 4v + 240)/3v.
Total distance= 120 km.
Average speed = 60 km/h (given)
However average is given by = total distance /total time.
So (120 X 3 X v)/(4v +240) = 60
360 v = 240v +14400
120v = 14400
v= 14400/120 =120 km/hr.
so train has to cover those 80 km at a speed of 120 km/hr.