1950 AHSME Problems/Problem 27

Problem

A car travels $120$ miles from $A$ to $B$ at $30$ miles per hour but returns the same distance at $40$ miles per hour. The average speed for the round trip is closest to:

$\textbf{(A)}\ 33\text{ mph}\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 34\text{ mph}\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 35\text{ mph}\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 36\text{ mph}\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 37\text{ mph}$

Solution

The car takes $120 \text{ miles }\cdot\dfrac{1 \text{ hr }}{30 \text{ miles }}=4 \text{ hr}$ to get from $A$ to $B$ . Also, it takes $120 \text{ miles }\cdot\dfrac{1 \text{ hr }}{40 \text{ miles }}=3 \text{ hr}$ to get from $B$ to $A$ . Therefore, the average speed is $\dfrac{240\text{ miles }}{7 \text{ hr}}=34\dfrac{2}{7}\text{ mph}$ , which is closest to $\boxed{\textbf{(B)}\ 34\text{ mph}}$ .

1950 AHSC (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 26	Followed by Problem 28
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31 • 32 • 33 • 34 • 35 • 36 • 37 • 38 • 39 • 40 • 41 • 42 • 43 • 44 • 45 • 46 • 47 • 48 • 49 • 50
All AHSME Problems and Solutions

The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions.

Page

Toolbox

Search

1950 AHSME Problems/Problem 27

Problem

Solution

See Also