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An Emergency Vehicle Travels 10 Miles at a Speed of 50 Miles Per Hour GMAT Problem Solving

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Question: An emergency vehicle travels 10 miles at a speed of 50 miles per hour. How fast must the vehicle travel on the return if the round-trip travel time is to be 20 minutes?

  1. 55mph
  2. 60mph
  3. 65mph
  4. 70mph
  5. 75mph

Correct Answer: E
Solution and Explanation:
Approach Solution 1:

The problem statement states that:

Given:

  • A vehicle travels 10 miles at a speed of 50 miles per hour.

Find out:

  • The speed of the vehicle on its return journey if the round-trip travel time is 20 minutes

Total time taken in the onward journey is 10*60/50 = 12 mins
The total duration of the journey is 20 mins
Therefore, time left = 20 -12 = 8 mins or 8/60 hrs
Therefore, we can say, 10 = speed * 8/60 (since, Distance= Speed * time)
Hence, the speed of the vehicle = 75 mph

Approach Solution 2:

The problem statement informs that:

Given:

  • A vehicle travels 10 miles at a speed of 50 miles per hour.

Find out:

  • The speed of the vehicle on its return journey if the round-trip travel time is 20 minutes

As per the question, the time taken for one side journey = 10/50 hour = 60/5 =12 min
The time for the return journey should be 8 minutes to complete the journey in 20 mins
Therefore, we can say, 2/3 of one side i.e. 2/3 of 12 is 8
Hence, for time to be ⅔, the speed of the vehicle needs to be = 3/2 of 50 = 75 mph

Approach Solution 3:

The problem statement tells that:

Given:

  • A vehicle travels 10 miles at a speed of 50 miles per hour.

Find out:

  • The speed of the vehicle on its return journey if the round-trip travel time is 20 minutes

The time taken by the vehicle on the first part of the journey= 10/50 hour = 1/5 of an hour = 12 minutes.
Hence, the return trip must be done in only 8 minutes.
Since the return trip should be 50% faster in order to achieve that.
Therefore, the speed of the vehicle on its return journey= 1.5*50 = 75 mph.

“An emergency vehicle travels 10 miles at a speed of 50 miles per hour”- is a topic of the GMAT Quantitative reasoning section of the GMAT exam. This topic has been taken from the book “501 GMAT Questions”. GMAT Problem Solving questions promote the candidates to improve their skills in interpreting numerical problems. GMAT Quant practice papers assist the candidates to analyse varieties of questions that will enable them to perform better in the exam.

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*The article might have information for the previous academic years, please refer the official website of the exam.

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