Distance and Rate

Richard Yang
June 2022

1 Introduction
This handout deals with rates. A rate is essentially how much of something
is accomplished in a certain amount of time. For example, when you drive in
a car at 40 miles per hour, it means that for every hour you drive, you will
have traveled 40 miles, or if a pump can deliver water at 5 liters per minute,
it means that every minute 5 liters will have been pumped.

Example 1. A boy walks at a rate of four miles per hour to school, but jogs
six miles per hour on the way back. What is his average speed?

Solution: Firstly, the answer is not 5 miles per hour! To see why, let’s say
the distance the boy walked is x. Then it takes him x4 hours to get to school,
and x6 hours to get back. In total, he spends x4 + x6 = 5x
12
hours. In addition,
the amount of distance he covers is 2x. We divide the distance by the time
to find the rate, and the x term cancels, giving us 245
miles per hour.

When we have two numbers a and b, their harmonic mean is 1 +2 1 . Solving

a b
this type of problem is equivalent to finding the harmonic mean. However,
this type of problem is dependent on the distance traveled being the
same.

Example 2. A girl walks to school at a rate of four miles per hour. When
school ends, she decides to go to a nearby store, which is twice as far away
as her home. If her walking rate is three miles per hour on this trip, what is
her average speed for both trips?

1
Solution: Once again, we can call the distance from home to school x. The
amount of time expended is x4 + 2x
3
= 11x
12
. The amount of distance covered is
36
3x. We divide to get 11 miles per hour.

Note that we used the same technique as the first problem. Often times,
knowing a specific tool is not required to solve a problem if you know how
to apply the basic concept behind it.

Example 3. A pump can fill a swimming pool in three hours. Another

pump can fill it in six hours. If there is a third pump, and when all three are
running, it takes one hour to fill in the pool, how many hours does it take
the third pump to fill the swimming pool alone?

Solution: Pump A can fill the swimming pool in three hours, so every hour
it can fill 13 of the pool. Likewise, Pump B can fill 16 of the pool per hour.
Pump C can fill x of the pool in one hour. When we sum Pump A, B, and
C’s rates, they should equal one. We can solve for x through the equation
1 − 13 − 16 = x = 12 . Therefore, it would take Pump C two hours to fill the
pool alone.

Checkpoints
1. Lorri took a 240 km trip to Waterloo. On her way there, her average
speed was 120 km/h. She was stopped for speeding, so on her way home her
average speed was 80 km/h. What was her average speed, in km/h, for the
entire round-trip? (CEMC 2007 Gauss 8)
2. Brad bicycles from home at an average speed of 9 miles per hour until he
gets a flat tire. With no way to fix the tire, Brad walks his bike back home
by the same route, averaging 3 miles per hour. If the entire round trip of
biking and walking took a total of 6 hours, what was Brad’s average speed in
miles per hour for the entire round trip? Express your answer as a decimal
to the nearest tenth. (MATHCOUNTS)
3. Frank can mow his own yard in 45 minutes. Joe’s yard is 40% larger
than Frank’s, but Joe can mow his own yard in an hour. How long would it
take them, working together, to mow both yards? Express your answer as
mm:ss, where mm is the number of minutes and ss is the number of seconds,
rounded to the nearest whole number, it would take them. (Alcumus)
4. If Eric can paint 3 cars in 4 hours and 2 trucks in 5 hours, then how long,
in hours, would it take him to paint 4 cars and a truck? Express your answer

2
as a common fraction.
5. One night two cylindrical wax candles of different heights and different
diameters were lit. One of the candles was 20 cm taller than the other. They
were both lit at the same time and each burned at a steady rate. Five hours
after they were lit they were both the same height. The taller one burned
all of its wax six hours after it was lit, and the shorter one burned all of its
wax 10 hours after it was lit. What was the ratio of the original height of
the shorter candle to the original height of the taller candle? Express your
answer as a common fraction. (MATHCOUNTS)

2 More Advanced Problems

Example 1. A 100 foot long moving walkway moves at a constant rate of
6 feet per second. Al steps onto the start of the walkway and stands. Bob
steps onto the start of the walkway two seconds later and strolls forward
along the walkway at a constant rate of 4 feet per second. Two seconds after
that, Cy reaches the start of the walkway and walks briskly forward beside
the walkway at a constant rate of 8 feet per second. At a certain time, one of
these three persons is exactly halfway between the other two. At that time,
find the distance in feet between the start of the walkway and the middle
person. (AIME 2007 I)

Solution: We can set up equations to represent the position of each person at

a certain time. Al’s position is described by A = 6t, where t is the number of
seconds since he has stepped on the walkway. Bob’s position is B = 10(t−2),
and Cy’s position is C = 8(t − 4). There are three cases, where either Al,
Bob or Cy is in the middle. If Al is in the middle, then his position can be
descibed by the average of Bob and Cy’s position, or A = B+C 2
= 9t−26 = 6t.
We solve the equation to get t = 26/3 in this case. If Bob is in the middle, we
have B = A+C 2
= 7t − 16 = 10t − 20. This gives a negative value of t, which is
invalid. Finally, if Cy is in the middle, we have C = A+B
2
= 8t − 10 = 8t − 32.
This has no solutions. Therefore, the only valid solution is t = 26/3. At this
time, Al was 6 · 263
= 52 feet down the walkway.

Example 2. Rowena can paint a room in 14 hours, while Ruby can paint it
in 6 hours. If Rowena paints for x hours and Ruby paints for y hours, they

3
will finish half of the painting, while if Rowena paints for y hours and Ruby
paints for x hours they will paint the whole room. Find the ordered pair
(x, y). (Alcumus)

Solution: We can set up a system of equations:

x y 1
+ = .
14 6 2
y x
+ = 1.
14 6
We simplify denominators to 3x + 7y = 21 and7x + 3y = 42. From here, we
use basic algebra techniques to derive (x, y) = 231 , 21 .
40 40

Example 3. In order to complete a large job, 1000 workers were hired, just
enough to complete the job on schedule. All the workers stayed on the job
while the first quarter of the work was done, so the first quarter of the work
was completed on schedule. Then 100 workers were laid off, so the second
quarter of the work was completed behind schedule. Then an additional 100
workers were laid off, so the third quarter of the work was completed still
further behind schedule. Given that all workers work at the same rate, what
is the minimum number of additional workers, beyond the 800 workers still
on the job at the end of the third quarter, that must be hired after three-
quarters of the work has been completed so that the entire project can be
completed on schedule or before? (AIME 2004 II)

Solution: Let’s say the project was scheduled to be completed in 4 units of

time. The first quarter of the project is completed on time. However, the
9
second quarter is completed with 10 th of the workers, and thus takes 10
9
units
5
of time. Applying the same logic, the third quarter is completed in 4 time
units. We now have 4 − (1 + 10 9
+ 45 ) = 36
23
time units left to complete the
final quarter. In order to finish on time, we need at least 1000 · 36
23
workers,
which to the nearest integer is 1566. Therefore, the company needs to hire
1566 − 800 = 766 workers.

Example 4. Zuleica’s mother Wilma picks her up at the train station when
she comes home from school, then Wilma drives Zuleica home. They always
return home at 5:00 p.m. One day Zuleica left school early and got to the
train station an hour early. She then started walking home. Wilma left home

4
at the usual time to pick Zuleica up, and they met along the route between
the train station and their house. Wilma picked Zuleica up and then drove
home, arriving at 4:48 p.m. For how many minutes had Zuleica been walking
before Wilma picked her up? (Alcumus)

Solution: Instead of blindly applying our tools, let’s think more carefully.
Wilma leaves at the same time, but gets home 12 minutes early. This means
that Zuleica was picked up six minutes earlier then usual. In addition, she
arrived at the train station 60 minutes early. So, the amount of time she was
walking is therefore 60 − 6 = 54 minutes.

3 Problems
1. Julian and Joshua each maintain a constant speed as they run laps around
a 400-meter track. In the time it takes Julian to complete two laps, Joshua
completes three laps. Julian runs each mile in 12 minutes. How many minutes
does it take Joshua to run exactly one mile? (2007 MATHCOUNTS State
Countdown)
2. Rico can run 5 miles in the same amount of time that Donna can run
3 miles. Rico runs a rate 4 miles per hour faster than Donna. At that
rate, what is the number of miles that Rico runs in 1 hour and 30 minutes?
(Alcumus)
3. Cassandra sets her watch to the correct time at noon. At the actual time
of 1:00 PM, she notices that her watch reads 12:57 and 36 seconds. Assuming
that her watch loses time at a constant rate, what will be the actual time
when her watch first reads 10:00 PM? (2003 AMC 12)
4. One complete lap around a particular circular track is 400 meters. Jun
and Quan each start running at the starting line and run around the track;
Jun runs clockwise at 3 meters per second, and Quan runs counterclockwise
at 5 meters per second. When they meet for the sixth time after starting,
they stop and both walk back together along the track to the starting line.
What is the shortest distance they could walk back on the track together?
(2006 MATHCOUNTS State Target)
5. At Pizza Perfect, Ron and Harold make pizza crusts. When they work
separately Ron finishes the job of making 100 crusts 1.2 hours before Harold
finishes the same job. When they work together they finish making 100 crusts

5
in 1.8 hours. How many hours, to the nearest tenth of an hour, does it take
Ron working alone to make 100 crusts?
6. The students in Mrs. Reed’s English class are reading the same 760-page
novel. Three friends, Alice, Bob and Chandra, are in the class. Alice reads
a page in 20 seconds, Bob reads a page in 45 seconds and Chandra reads a
page in 30 seconds.
Before Chandra and Bob start reading, Alice says she would like to team
read with them. If they divide the book into three sections so that each
reads for the same length of time, how many seconds will each have to read?
(2006 AMC 8)
7. Yan is somewhere between his home and the stadium. To get to the sta-
dium he can walk directly to the stadium, or else he can walk home and then
ride his bicycle to the stadium. He rides 7 times as fast as he walks, and both
choices require the same amount of time. What is the ratio of Yan’s distance
from his home to his distance from the stadium? (2007 AMC 10/12)
8. At 9:00 am, an empty water tank begins to be filled with water flowing
through a hose at a rate of five gallons per minute. Seven hours later, water
flowing through a second hose also starts to fill the tank at a rate of eight gal-
lons per minute. Some time later, the first hose is turned off but the second
hose continues to be used to fill the tank. At midnight the 7740-gallon tank
is finally full. At what time was the first hose turned off? (MATHCOUNTS)
9. Two trains are approaching one another from opposite directions on par-
allel tracks. Each train is 150 ft long, but one of the trains is moving at
50 ft/sec, while the other is traveling at only 30 ft/sec. How many seconds
elapse from the time the trains first begin to overlap to the time they have
completely passed one another?
10. Wilma and Betty ran a 100-meter race at top speed, and Wilma fin-
ished when Betty had 10 meters to go. They decided to run again, but this
time Wilma gave Betty an advantage. Wilma’s starting point was 10 meters
behind the original starting point. Given that Wilma and Betty run at the
same speeds as the previous race, how many meters will Betty be from the
finish line when Wilma crosses it? (MATHCOUNTS)