TIME, SPEED AND DISTANCE ‘After completion of this chapter, you should have a thorough understanding of the following: * Basic relationship between time, speed and distance + Different situations lke iotion in a straight line * Concepts attached to these motions * Kinds of questions asked in the CAT + Methods of solving questions I introduction to the topic CAT 2007 CT Cra Cee Om CAT 2006 Number of CT oe reo) Cor el Praad Ce nm eee) Time, speed and distance (TSD) is one of the most popular topics in the CAT. Almost 5%~10% questions in the paper are asked from this chapter every year. The concept of time, speed and distance is also used extensively for questions relating to different areas in various other examinations. Some of these areas are: motion in a straight line, boats and streams/escalators, races, circular motion, trains, clocks. Students should try to understand the inter-relationship between the factors time, speed and distance.RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TIME, SPEED AND DISTANCE ‘As we know, Distance = Speed x Time Tt means that if a person is runni speed of 20 km/h and he runs for 2 h, he will be covering a total distance of 40 km. Distance = 20 x 2 = 40 km When an object is moving with a certain speed in a particular time, the displacement made by an object is called the distance. Unit of Distance Kilometre (km) and meter (m) is usually taken as the unit of distance. Sometimes, mile or feet, etc., can be found as the unit. Time Time is defined as a quantity, which governs the order or sequence of an occurrence. In the absence of time, the actual sequence of any occurrence or incident would be lost. If we did not have the concept of time, we would not bbe able know in what period or in what order something took place. So, time could be seen asabig of floors where all the floors are designated according. to the occurrence of incidents/events on the respective floors. In our case time shall be seen as the duration of happening of any event. Unit of Time Hour and second are mostly taken as the unit of time. However, day or minute are also taken as units. Speed Speed is defined as the distance covered per unit time, In other words, it isthe rate at which the distance is covered Unit of Speed Though we commonly take knv hour and metre/sec as the units of speed. Yet, any unit of distance upon any unit of time can be taken as the unit of speed. For example, mile/h, feevs, mile/s, feevh, ete. _ Conversion from m/s to km/h and vice-versa fspeed is given in ms and it is required to convert it imo then we mutply ity 4 and when speed oH given in kaw/h and. we have to convert ‘into m/s, “we multiply itby ‘Tie, SreeD Ano Distance 161 ws 36 kav = 36% =10ms 1 [) aayhe adn 7k MOTION IN A STRAIGHT LINE This is one of the primary areas of application of time, speed and distance, By using the basic relationship between time, speed and distance the following three different cases are possible: Case 1 When S (Distance) is constant It is read as V is inversely proportional to T. Itcan be understood in terms of the reciprocal-ratio- multiplication relationship between V and T. ‘Suppose distance = 1000 km and Speed = 100 km/h Time To simplify it, the product stability ratio can be further used. So, the more the speed, the lesser is the time taken and the lesser the speed, more will be the time taken. Example 1 Aman cycles with a speed of 10 knv/h and reaches his office at I p.m. However, when he cycles with a speed of 15 km/h, he reaches his office at 1] a.m. At ‘what speed should he cycle so that he reaches his office at 12 noon? (CAT 2004) Solution Using the product stability ratio, ‘The speed is being increased by 50%, so the time taken will reduce by 33.33%. So, 33.33 % of Time =2h Hence, total time = 6 h So, distance = 10x 6 = 60km This distance is to be covered in 5 h (6 -)h. So, speed = 60/5 = 12 krvh Example 2 Siddharth goes by a bike to pick up his girlfriend everyday from college and then drops her at her house. College timings are tll § p.m. daily, but today the college at 4 p.m. His girlfriend, not finding Siddharth at the college gate, starts walking towards her house. Siddharth, unaware of this fact, leaves his house as usual meets his girlfriend on way, picks her up and drops her at her house. At night, Siddharth realizes that he had saved 40 min that day. What is the ratio of the speed of Siddharth to that of his girlfriend? (Both of them live in the same building).162 Armmenc Solution Let us see the following schematic represen: tation: —————— Mostiog pom! College ‘The usual route of Siddharth is home-college-home His route today is ~ home ~ meeting point ~ home And, in this way, 40 min are saved. So, he takes 20 ‘min to cover the distance between the meeting paint and the college. It can be further concluded that he usually reaches college at 5 r.m., but today he reached at 4:40 (20 min, are saved) and his girlfriend took 40 min, (she starts at 4 pt.) o cover the distance between her college to the meeting, point. The ratio of time of Siddharth and his girlfriend =20:40= 1:2 ‘The rato of the speed of Siddharth and bi a2. Case 2 When T (Time) is constant Sav So, $,/8,= V/V, ‘The higheris the speed, the more will be the distance ‘covered and the lower the speed, the lesser will be the distance covered. We'll see that T constant is a situation specific to meeting point cases irlfriend Exemple3 Distance between two points AB= 110 km. ‘Manoj starts runing from A at a speed of 60 knv’h and Ravi starts running from B at a speed of 40 km/h at the same time. They meet at a point X, somewhere on the line AB, What is ratio of AX to BA? —_—__—_————_* Solution Since both Manoj and Rasi are running for the same time, T is constant. Hence, the ratio of the istance covered by them will be the same as the ratio of their speed. So, AX/BX = Speed af Manoj/Specd of Ravi = 60/40 =3:2 Some typical meeting point cases ‘When two persons are running between the ends of a {inear track for infinite time: Example 4 Two robots Mango and Bango start from the opposite ends A and B of. lincar track respectively and keep running between the ends for infinite time, ‘They meet for the first time at a point 60 m from A, If AB = 100m, which point is their point of 4th meeting? Solution 1st meeting point St £0m—__—_—! ‘The ratio of the speed of Mango and Bango is 60:40 3:2. Now Mango is moving towards B and Bango is moving towards A. For the 2nd meeting, Bango reaches A aftercovering (60 m, Mango must have covered 90 m in the same time, So, he is at the mid-point of A. and B. Now, the distance between Mango and Bango is $0 m. They will cover this distance of 50 m in the ratio of 3:2. So, the point of their 2nd meeting is © om Itcan be seem here thatthe sum ofthe distance covered bby both Mango and Bango from the starting till now is 300m, and the difference between the distance covered between the Ist meeting and the 2nd meeting is 200m, So, again they will meet for the 3rd time when they have covered a total distance of 200 m together. Mango and Bango will cover this distance of 200 m in the ratio of 3:2. Distance covered by Mango = 120 m and distance covered by Bango = 80 m. So, the 3rd meeting point is point B ‘Tohave a dth meeting, they will again have to covera total distance of 200 m, So, the point oftheir 4th meeting is 20 m from A. So, we can now generalize the ahove situation, Distance covered by both ofthem forthe Ist meeting = 100m Distance covered by both of them forthe 2nd meeting = 100m + 200 m= 300 m Distance covered by both of them for the 3rd meeting = 300m + 200 m= $00.m Distance covered by both of them for the 4th meeting = 500m +200 m= 700 m The ratio of the speed of Mango and Bango is 3:2, 80 the distance covered by Mango = 420m Hence they will meet at 20 m from A. Example 5 Two persons, Ram and Mohan, start from, the same end A of 8 linear track AB and keep running to and fro for infinite time. They meet for the first time at a point 20 m from B. If AB = 100 m, which point is their point of 4th meeting?”