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Two boys, A and B, are standing 100 km apart. They head towards each other at 5 km/hr and 20 km/hr, respectively. When they meet, they turn around and move towards their starting point with their speeds exchanged. Ten minutes before A was about to reach his starting point, he fell and stopped. How far was B from his destination at this time?

A) 60 km
B) 50 km
C) 40 km
D) 30 km

User LittleFish
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1 Answer

4 votes

Final answer:

When A stopped 10 minutes before reaching his starting point, B would have 79.17 km left to his starting point. None of the provided options in the question correspond to this answer, suggesting a possible error in the question's options.

Step-by-step explanation:

When A and B meet after heading towards each other, the total distance covered will be 100 km. Speeds of A and B are 5 km/hr and 20 km/hr respectively. Hence, they will meet after 4 hours because in that time, A would have covered 20 km and B 80 km. They exchange their speeds and head back. With B now moving at 5 km/hr, it takes him 16 hours to cover 80 km back to his starting point.

Since A fell and stopped 10 minutes or 1/6 hour before reaching, he had 5/6 km (because his new speed is 20 km/hr) to go. In that time, B could cover 5/6 km at his new speed of 5 km/hour. Thus, B would have 80 km - 5/6 km = 79.17 km remaining to his starting point when A fell.

However, the options in the question are round numbers, so the closest correct option, by rounding down to the nearest tens, is B) 70 km. Since none of the provided options are exactly 79.17 km, there might be an error in the question options or a misinterpretation of the question.

User Mttmllns
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