Moving walkway

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Moving walkway

by lilu » Wed Mar 04, 2009 10:11 am
The ‘moving walkway’ is a 300-foot long walkway consisting of a conveyor belt that moves continuously at 3 feet per second. When Bill steps on the walkway, a group of people that are also on the walkway stands 120 feet in front of him. He walks toward the group at a combined rate (including both walkway and foot speed) of 6 feet per second relative to the ground. Once Bill reaches the group of people, he stops walking and stands with them until the walkway ends. What is Bill’s average rate of movement for his trip along the moving walkway?
2 feet per second
2.5 feet per second
3 feet per second
4 feet per second
5 feet per second
Source: — Problem Solving |

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by kamu » Wed Mar 04, 2009 10:23 am
He's moving 3ft/s on the walkway. that means 40s to reach the crowd.
in this 40s they covered 120ft more. total =240ft.

rest of the 60ft is covered at 3ft/s . 20s more.

total movement 300ft.
total time 60s.

300/60 =5 = E

:)

After solving this I read about this shortcut. Brilliant.

The crowd is 180 ft from the end when he started.
They all reach the end together.
180/3ft/s = 60s for him to cover 300ft!!!

300/60 =5ft/s

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by lilu » Wed Mar 04, 2009 10:43 am
Sorry about posting a duplicate question. I tried to run a search on this question and didn't get any results.