CAT 2019 Question Paper | Quants Slot 2

CAT Questions

Number System is a comparitively easier topic resting on the fundamentals of Mathematics. However, many a times CAT aspirants find themselves stuck with questions of these type! Trust us, It happens even to the best of us! A fabulous way around it is to practice CAT previous year paper questions and strengthen your CAT preparation online. Here is a beautiful question from CAT 2019 Question Paper Slot 2. Try your hands at it and see if you can steer your way to the answer without having a look at the solution provided.
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Question 21 : Two ants A and B start from a point P on a circle at the same time, with A moving clock-wise and B moving anti-clockwise. They meet for the first time at 10:00 am when A has covered 60% of the track. If A returns to P at 10:12 am, then B returns to P at

1. 10:27 am
2. 10:25 am
3. 10:45 am
4. 10:18 am

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Video Explanation

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Explanatory Answer

By the time A and B meet for the first time, A covers 60% of the distance, while B covers 40% of the distance.

So, the speeds of A and b are in the ratio 60:40 or 3:2
Hence, the time they take to cover a particular distance will be in the ratio 2:3

We know that A covers 60% of the distance at 10:00 AM and covers 100% of the distance at 10:12 AM.

That means A takes 12 minutes to cover 40% of the track. So to cover the entire track he must have taken 12+12+6 = 30 minutes.
(because 40% + 40% + 20% = 100%)

Since the time taken by A and B to complete the track are in the ratio 2:3, the time taken by B to complete the track will be 45 minutes.

At 10:00 AM, B has covered 40% of the track. If we can find out what time does B take to complete the remaining 60% of the track, we can find the finish time of B.

Time required to complete 60% of the track = 60% of 45 = 27 minutes.
Hence, B complete one single round at 10:27 AM.

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The question is "Two ants A and B start from a point P on a circle at the same time, with A moving clock-wise and B moving anti-clockwise. They meet for the first time at 10:00 am when A has covered 60% of the track. If A returns to P at 10:12 am, then B returns to P at"

Hence, the answer is 10:27 am

Choice A is the correct answer.