Sunday, March 3, 2013

How Far

After visiting my Great Aunt Annie, I travelled home in her old jalopy. The car was old and battered, it had a leak from the petrol tank, and I was stuck in second gear.

This meant that I could only travel along at a steady 30 miles per hour and managed a paltry 20 miles per gallon of fuel.

At the start of the journey I had placed exactly 10 gallons of fuel into the tank. I knew though, that the fuel tank lost fuel at the rate of half a gallon per hour.

Just as I arrived home, the car stopped because it had run out of fuel and I had only just made it.

 How far was it from my Great Aunt's to my home?


 
Puzzle Answer

Answer:

150 miles.

I was travelling at 30mph at a rate of 20mpg, so I was using 1.5 gallons every hour for the driving itself. I was also losing 0.5 gallon every hour, so in total, I was using 2 gallons every hour. Therefore to use all of the 10 gallons I started with, I travelled for 5 hours.

5 hours at 30mph is 150 miles.

 

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