Brain Teasers
Losing Petrol
After visiting my Great Aunt Bernie, I travelled home in my old jalopy. The car was so old and battered, I was stuck in second gear. This meant that I could only travel along at a steady 30 miles per hour and managed a paltry 20 miles per gallon of petrol. At the start of the journey I had placed exactly 10 gallons of petrol into the tank. I knew though, that the petrol tank had a leak and lost petrol at the rate of half a gallon per hour. As I arrived home, the car stopped because it had run out of petrol and I only just made it. How far was it from my Great Aunt's to my home?
Answer
150 miles; as I was travelling at 30 mph, I was using 1.5 gallons of petrol and losing 0.5 gallon of petrol for each hour I travelled. Therefore, I was getting through the petrol at a total rate 2 gallons per hour. Since I had 10 gallons of petrol at the start, I could travel for 5 hours before running out. 5 hours at 30 mph is 150 miles.Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
Very good I like it. I had to write everything down, but then it was pretty easy! Nice though!
Great teaser! I loved it, even if it took me a while to figure out

Excellent! Nice easy explanation too!

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