Speed, Time and Distance Problems with Answers

Speed, Time and Distance Problems with Answers

This article is basically a study-guide which will aid to crack questions on “Time & Distance” and you, in turn, will be able to fetch good marks. In IBPS PO Speed, Time and Distance are the scoring section. It is a section asked most commonly in bank/ recruitment exams. Time, Speed and Distance is one of the most popular topics in the perspective of Competitive exam. It is scoring topic and you can easily score if your concepts are clear. Around 2-5% questions are asked from these topics.

We are providing Time, Speed and Distance Questions with Answers which are important for IBPS Exams like IBPS PO, Clerk, SO, RRB etc.

IBPS PO and Clerk has quantitative questions of 35 marks in prelims and 50 marks in Mains. IBPS RRB officer and RRB Assistant exam also has quantitative section of 40 marks. The questions from time, speed and distance will be certainly asked. You need to be well prepared for the different type of questions which will be asked in these sections.

 Basics of Time and Distance Problems

• Relation between Time, Speed and Distance- Speed, Time and Distance Problems with Answers

As we know, Distance = Time * Speed

It means that if a person is running at a speed of 20km/h and he runs for 2 hours , he will be covering a total distance of 40 km.

Distance = 20 * 2 = 40 km

• Distance: When an object is moving with a certain speed in a particular time, the displacement made by an object called the distance.

Unit of Distance : Generally, Kilometer (Km) and meter (m)

• Time: Time is a quantity which governs the order or sequence of an occurrence. In the absence of time, the actual sequence of any occurrence or incident would be lost.

Unit of Time: Hour and Second are mostly taken as the unit of time.

• Speed: Speed is defined as the distance covered per unit time. In other words, it is the rate at which distance is covered.

Unit of Speed: Km/hour and Meter/second

Important Formulas for Time, Speed and Distance

• Speed, Time and Distance:

Speed = Distance/Time , Time = Distance/Speed, Distance = Speed * Time2

• km/hr to m/sec conversion:

x km/hr = x * 5/18 m/sec

• m/sec to km/hr conversion:

x m/sec = x * 18/5 km/hr

• If the ratio of the speeds of A and B is a: b, then the ratio of the the times taken by then to cover the same distance is 1/a:1/b or b:a
• Suppose a man covers a certain distance at x km/hr and an equal distance at y km/hr, then average the average speed during the whole journey is (2xy/x+y)km/hr

Relation between time, distance and speed when one of them is kept constant

• 1. Speed is constant distance covered by the object is directly proportional to the time taken.
  2. Time is constant speed is directly proportional to the distance traveled.
  3. Distance is constant speed is inversely proportional to the time taken.

Tips to Solve Speed, Time and Distance Problems:

Practice is the most important steps to solve time, speed and distance problems. Apart from practice, you also need to know basic concepts and short cut tricks.

Example with Solution:

Question : How many minutes Raman will take to cover a distance of 400 meters if he runs at a speed of 20 km/hr?

Answer & Explanation :
⇒ Raman’s speed = 20 km/hr = 20 × 5/18 = 50/9 m/sec
⇒ 400 × 9/50 = 1⅕ mins

Question: In a 100 m race A runs at a speed of 1.66 m/s. If A gives a start of 4m to B and still beats him by 12 seconds. What is the speed of B ?

Answer & Explanation :

Time taken by A to cover 100 meters = 60 seconds
⇒ Since A gives a start of 4 seconds then time takes by B = 72 seconds
⇒ B takes 72 seconds to cover 96 meters
⇒ Speed of B = 96/72 = 1.33 m/s