CAT 2018 Question Paper | Quants Slot 2

This is an exciting question from Speed, Time and Distance. Test your fundamentals of this topic by solving this wonderful question that appeared in the CAT 2018 Question Paper.. For more such CAT Previous Year Paper and CAT-Level questions, visit: 2IIM's CAT Question Bank

Question 1 :Points A, P, Q and B lie on the same line such that P, Q and B are, respectively, 100 km, 200 km and 300 km away from A. Cars 1 and 2 leave A at the same time and move towards B. Simultaneously, car 3 leaves B and moves towards A. Car 3 meets Car 1 at Q, and Car 2 at P. If each car is moving in uniform speed then the ratio of the speed of Car 2 to that of Car 1 is

1. 1 : 4
2. 2 : 9
3. 1 : 2
4. 2 : 7

Video Explanation

Explanatory Answer

Method of solving this CAT Question from Speed Time Distance

It is given that points A, P, Q and B lie on the same line such that P, Q and B are 100 km, 200 km and 300 km away from A. Let us draw the diagram first. All of them are on the same straight line and P, Q lie between A and B.
Cars 1 and Cars 2 leave A at the same time and move towards B. Simultaneously, Car 3 leaves B and moves towards A. Let us add more details to the diagram. C1 and C2 move towards B and C3 moves towards A. C3 meets C1 at Q and C3 meets C2 at P.

Let us assume the speeds of Car 1, 2, and 3 to be C1, C2 and C3 respectively. Car 1 is travelling quicker than Car 2. When Car 1 travels 200 km to reach Q, Car 3 has travelled 100 km or ratio of their speeds, C1 : C3 is 2 : 1.C1 and C2 move towards B and C3 moves towards A. C3 meets C1 at Q and C3 meets C2 at P.
Let us assume the speeds of Car 1, 2, and 3 to be C1, C2 and C3 respectively.When Car 3 travels 200 km to reach P, Car 2 has travelled 100 km or ratio of their speeds, C3 : C2 is 2 : 1. Now we have all the ratios. We know that C1 : C3 is 2 : 1 and C3 : C2 is 2 : 1. We can see that C3 is the common link


So, taking LCM of C3, we get,

We can see that ratio of speeds of Car 2 to Car 1 is 1 : 4. Hence, C2 : C1 = 1 : 4

The question is "Points A, P, Q and B lie on the same line such that P, Q and B are, respectively, 100 km, 200 km and 300 km away from A. Cars 1 and 2 leave A at the same time and move towards B. Simultaneously, car 3 leaves B and moves towards A. Car 3 meets Car 1 at Q, and Car 2 at P. If each car is moving in uniform speed then the ratio of the speed of Car 2 to that of Car 1 is"

Hence, the answer is 1 : 4

Choice A is the correct answer.