1960 AHSME Problems/Problem 34
Problem
Two swimmers, at opposite ends of a -foot pool, start to swim the length of the pool, one at the rate of feet per second, the other at feet per second. They swim back and forth for minutes. Allowing no loss of times at the turns, find the number of times they pass each other.
Solution
First, note that it will take seconds for the first swimmer to reach the other side and seconds for the second swimmer to reach the other side. Also, note that after seconds (or minutes), both swimmers will complete an even number of laps, essentially returning to their starting point.
At this point, find the number of meeting points in the first minutes, then multiply by four to get the answer. From the graph (where the x-axis is the time in seconds and the y-axis is distance from one side of the pool), there are five meeting points, so the two swimmers will pass each other times, which is answer choice .
See Also
1960 AHSC (Problems • Answer Key • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 33 |
Followed by Problem 35 | |
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