BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

Wife at the train station

This topic has expert replies
Post new topic Post Reply
Previous Topic Next Topic
User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3650
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:27 am
Location: India
Thanked: 267 times
Followed by:80 members
GMAT Score:760

Wife at the train station

by sanju09 » Tue Feb 10, 2009 2:55 am
Each day a man meets his wife at the train station after work, and then she drives him home. She always arrives exactly on time to pick him up. One day he catches an earlier train and arrives at the station an hour early. He immediately begins walking home along the same route the wife drives. Eventually his wife sees him on her way to the station and drives him the rest of the way home. When they arrive home the man notices that they arrived 20 minutes earlier than usual. How much time, in minutes, did the man spend walking?
A. 35
B. 40
C. 45
D. 50
E. 55
The mind is everything. What you think you become. -Lord Buddha



Sanjeev K Saxena
Quantitative Instructor
The Princeton Review - Manya Abroad
Lucknow-226001

www.manyagroup.com
Top
Source: — Problem Solving |
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 106
Joined: Wed Feb 04, 2009 6:09 am
Location: Louisville, KY
Thanked: 8 times

by marcusking » Tue Feb 10, 2009 1:01 pm
I don't think there is an answer to this. We aren't provided with a rate of either the person walking or the wife driving, nor are we provided with any type of distance. We are trying to solve a "distance" equation with only one piece of the equation.
Top
User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3650
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:27 am
Location: India
Thanked: 267 times
Followed by:80 members
GMAT Score:760

by sanju09 » Wed Feb 11, 2009 3:15 am
:wink: Anybody else please!
The mind is everything. What you think you become. -Lord Buddha



Sanjeev K Saxena
Quantitative Instructor
The Princeton Review - Manya Abroad
Lucknow-226001

www.manyagroup.com
Top
Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:20 pm
Thanked: 1 times

by anas1717 » Wed Feb 11, 2009 7:18 am
Let's say the guy usually reaches the station at 10 AM, and this is the same time his wife is there to pick him up, today he arrived at 9 AM and started walking.

The time saved by him walking was 20 minutes, which is the time that is required to reach the station and come back from the point of meeting, meaning that the time required from the point he reached to the station is 10 minutes, if the wife usually reaches the station on 10 AM sharp , and now they met 10 minutes before reaching the station, this means they met on 9:50 AM.

The guy started walking on 9 AM, i think the correct answer then that he walked for 50 minutes from 9 AM till 9:50 AM. (D)
Top
User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3650
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:27 am
Location: India
Thanked: 267 times
Followed by:80 members
GMAT Score:760

by sanju09 » Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:51 am
anas1717 wrote:Let's say the guy usually reaches the station at 10 AM, and this is the same time his wife is there to pick him up, today he arrived at 9 AM and started walking.

The time saved by him walking was 20 minutes, which is the time that is required to reach the station and come back from the point of meeting, meaning that the time required from the point he reached to the station is 10 minutes, if the wife usually reaches the station on 10 AM sharp , and now they met 10 minutes before reaching the station, this means they met on 9:50 AM.

The guy started walking on 9 AM, i think the correct answer then that he walked for 50 minutes from 9 AM till 9:50 AM. (D)
:) Wow! 50 minutes is the correct answer. But, can anybody find any fallacy in anas1717's explanation? Although that's fantastic!
The mind is everything. What you think you become. -Lord Buddha



Sanjeev K Saxena
Quantitative Instructor
The Princeton Review - Manya Abroad
Lucknow-226001

www.manyagroup.com
Top
Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:12 pm

by Maratha1 » Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:44 am
sanju09 wrote:
anas1717 wrote:Let's say the guy usually reaches the station at 10 AM, and this is the same time his wife is there to pick him up, today he arrived at 9 AM and started walking.

The time saved by him walking was 20 minutes, which is the time that is required to reach the station and come back from the point of meeting, meaning that the time required from the point he reached to the station is 10 minutes, if the wife usually reaches the station on 10 AM sharp , and now they met 10 minutes before reaching the station, this means they met on 9:50 AM.

The guy started walking on 9 AM, i think the correct answer then that he walked for 50 minutes from 9 AM till 9:50 AM. (D)
:) Wow! 50 minutes is the correct answer. But, can anybody find any fallacy in anas1717's explanation? Although that's fantastic!

Not quite understood the answer. Can anyone please elaborate...
carpe diem!
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2009 7:58 pm
Location: india
Thanked: 2 times
GMAT Score:700

by moorthy76 » Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:01 am
Brillant.... i could solve only half the problem..... fantastic...
Best Regards,
Surya
Top
User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3650
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:27 am
Location: India
Thanked: 267 times
Followed by:80 members
GMAT Score:760

by sanju09 » Tue Feb 17, 2009 2:20 am
Maratha1 wrote:
sanju09 wrote:
anas1717 wrote:Let's say the guy usually reaches the station at 10 AM, and this is the same time his wife is there to pick him up, today he arrived at 9 AM and started walking.

The time saved by him walking was 20 minutes, which is the time that is required to reach the station and come back from the point of meeting, meaning that the time required from the point he reached to the station is 10 minutes, if the wife usually reaches the station on 10 AM sharp , and now they met 10 minutes before reaching the station, this means they met on 9:50 AM.

The guy started walking on 9 AM, i think the correct answer then that he walked for 50 minutes from 9 AM till 9:50 AM. (D)
:) Wow! 50 minutes is the correct answer. But, can anybody find any fallacy in anas1717's explanation? Although that's fantastic!

Not quite understood the answer. Can anyone please elaborate...
:evil: This is a hard solution to explain, it will help if you draw a graph. Suppose another couple (call them couple B) lives with the couple stated in the problem (call them couple A). Normally both men catch the same train home. However today the husband B arrives at the station 20 minutes early and wife B is already there to take him home. Both men will arrive home at the same time, because both arrive 20 minutes earlier than usual.

On their way home at some point couple B will pass wife A picking up husband A and they will drive the rest of the way home side by side, again both arriving 20 minutes early.

Now assume that wife A didn’t see her husband and instead kept going to the train station. She would have arrived exactly 20 minutes after wife B left, because husband B arrived 20 minutes before husband A was expected to arrive, and wife A is always exactly on time. Likewise if wife B had turned around when she saw husband A and went back to the station she would have arrived 20 minutes after she left the station. In other words it would take her 10 minutes to reach husband A and 10 minutes to get back to the station.

So after A walked for 40 minutes wife B would have left the station. 10 minutes later she would have caught up to husband A. So husband A walked a total of 50 minutes.
The mind is everything. What you think you become. -Lord Buddha



Sanjeev K Saxena
Quantitative Instructor
The Princeton Review - Manya Abroad
Lucknow-226001

www.manyagroup.com
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Feb 22, 2009 4:19 pm
Thanked: 5 times

by ssilver0210 » Sun Feb 22, 2009 5:59 pm
This isn't so hard if you look at it from another perspective.

We know that the wife left at the time that she normally leaves, because she had no idea that the husband had arrived early. We know that the wife and husband arrived home 20 minutes earlier than usual, even though the wife left home at the regular time. For them to arrive home 20 minutes early, the wife would have had to have encountered the husband after he had walked the distance covered by 10 minutes of travel in a car. 20 minutes would be saved because the wife would save the 10 minutes that would have been required to drive from the point she saw her husband to the station, as well as the ten minutes back from the station to the point she saw her husband.

So, let's say the husband usually arrives at 3pm. Today he arrives at 2pm. The wife leaves 2:30pm to pick him up. She will meet up with the husband at 2::50 pm, because of the above analysis (by meeting up with him at 2:50, rather than her normal 3 o'clock meeting, she saves 10 minutes from husband to station, and back from station to husband, and they arrive home 20 minutes early, as stated in the facts.

So, husband begins walking at 2pm, and wife meets up with him at 2:50=50 minutes. It does not matter which numbers you plug in for the time, the result is always the same. If husband arrives usually at 4:30pm, then that means today he arrived at 3:30 pm. Wife needs to meet up with him at 4:20 pm to save the 20 minutes back and forth. 3:30-4:20=50 minutes.

Make sense?
--Sean

I provide GMAT (verbal) tutoring in NYC, and over Skype/E-mail. Please contact [email protected] for further information, or if you have any questions at all.
Top
Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2008 8:51 pm

by xyz21 » Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:43 pm
ssilver0210 wrote:This isn't so hard if you look at it from another perspective.

We know that the wife left at the time that she normally leaves, because she had no idea that the husband had arrived early. We know that the wife and husband arrived home 20 minutes earlier than usual, even though the wife left home at the regular time. For them to arrive home 20 minutes early, the wife would have had to have encountered the husband after he had walked the distance covered by 10 minutes of travel in a car. 20 minutes would be saved because the wife would save the 10 minutes that would have been required to drive from the point she saw her husband to the station, as well as the ten minutes back from the station to the point she saw her husband.

So, let's say the husband usually arrives at 3pm. Today he arrives at 2pm. The wife leaves 2:30pm to pick him up. She will meet up with the husband at 2::50 pm, because of the above analysis (by meeting up with him at 2:50, rather than her normal 3 o'clock meeting, she saves 10 minutes from husband to station, and back from station to husband, and they arrive home 20 minutes early, as stated in the facts.

So, husband begins walking at 2pm, and wife meets up with him at 2:50=50 minutes. It does not matter which numbers you plug in for the time, the result is always the same. If husband arrives usually at 4:30pm, then that means today he arrived at 3:30 pm. Wife needs to meet up with him at 4:20 pm to save the 20 minutes back and forth. 3:30-4:20=50 minutes.

Make sense?
I like your approach, it's quite intuitive.. thanks and good job!
Top
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 33
Joined: Sun Feb 22, 2009 4:19 pm
Thanked: 5 times

by ssilver0210 » Sun Feb 22, 2009 10:02 pm
Glad it helped. :)
--Sean

I provide GMAT (verbal) tutoring in NYC, and over Skype/E-mail. Please contact [email protected] for further information, or if you have any questions at all.
Top
Post new topic Post Reply
• Page 1 of 1