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To reach her office from her home, Karen traveled x miles at a speed of y miles per hour. On her way back, via the same route, she travels for ten miles before stopping for an hour. If Karen drove at y miles per hour till she stopped, by what percentage should she increase her speed so that the overall time taken to reach back home from the office is the same as that taken to reach the office from home?

  • a)

  • b)

  • c)

  • d)

  • e)

Correct answer is option 'B'. Can you explain this answer?
Verified Answer
To reach her office from her home, Karen traveled x miles at a speed o...
In GMAT questions like this one, relying solely on an algebraic approach can slow you down. The most efficient method to solve this within 2 minutes is to use simple values for the unknowns.
Let's assume x=100x = 100x=100 miles and y=10y = 10y=10 miles per hour. This means Karen takes 10 hours to travel from her home to her office.
For her return trip, she travels 10 miles at the same speed, taking 1 hour. After stopping for an hour, she has 8 hours left to travel the remaining 90 miles (since the total travel time needs to match the 10 hours taken to reach the office). Therefore, she must travel the remaining 90 miles at an average speed of 90/8= 11.25 miles per hour.
Comparing this new speed to her original speed of 10 miles per hour, the percentage increase in speed is 
(11.25−10​)/10 * 100 =12.5%
 Now, we need to find the option that matches this percentage increase.
Looking at the options, we notice that the denominator is either x−y−10 or y−x−10. Since y is less than x, y−x−10 would be negative. Since we need a percentage increase (a positive value), we can eliminate options with y−x−10 as the denominator. Thus, options C, D, and E are eliminated, leaving us with A and B.
Option A has a much larger numerator, making it an unlikely percentage increase. Substituting x=100 and y=10 into option B:
100y/ (x-y-10) = 100 *10 /100-10-10 = 1000/80 =12.5 
This matches our required percentage increase, allowing us to rule out option A. Therefore, the correct answer is B.
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To reach her office from her home, Karen traveled x miles at a speed of y miles per hour. On her way back, via the same route, she travels for ten miles before stopping for an hour. If Karen drove at y miles per hour till she stopped, by what percentage should she increase her speed so that the overall time taken to reach back home from the office is the same as that taken to reach the office from home?a)b)c)d)e)Correct answer is option 'B'. Can you explain this answer? for GMAT 2025 is part of GMAT preparation. The Question and answers have been prepared according to the GMAT exam syllabus. Information about To reach her office from her home, Karen traveled x miles at a speed of y miles per hour. On her way back, via the same route, she travels for ten miles before stopping for an hour. If Karen drove at y miles per hour till she stopped, by what percentage should she increase her speed so that the overall time taken to reach back home from the office is the same as that taken to reach the office from home?a)b)c)d)e)Correct answer is option 'B'. Can you explain this answer? covers all topics & solutions for GMAT 2025 Exam. Find important definitions, questions, meanings, examples, exercises and tests below for To reach her office from her home, Karen traveled x miles at a speed of y miles per hour. On her way back, via the same route, she travels for ten miles before stopping for an hour. If Karen drove at y miles per hour till she stopped, by what percentage should she increase her speed so that the overall time taken to reach back home from the office is the same as that taken to reach the office from home?a)b)c)d)e)Correct answer is option 'B'. Can you explain this answer?.
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