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Lexy walks 5 miles from point A to point B in one hour, then bicycles back to point A along the same route at 15 miles per hour. Ben makes the same round trip, but does so at half of Lexy’s average speed. How many minutes does Ben spend on his round trip?
  • a)
    40
  • b)
    80
  • c)
    120
  • d)
    160
  • e)
    180
Correct answer is option 'D'. Can you explain this answer?
Verified Answer
Lexy walks 5 miles from point A to point B in one hour, then bicycles ...
We begin by figuring out Lexy’s average speed. On her way from A to B, she travels 5 miles in one hour, so her speed is 5 miles per hour. On her way back from B to A, she travels the same 5 miles at 15 miles per hour. Her average speed for the round trip is NOT simply the average of these two speeds. Rather, her average speed must be computed using the formula RT = D, where R is rate, T is time and D is distance. Her average speed for the whole trip is the total distance of her trip divided by the total time of her trip. 
We already know that she spends 1 hour going from A to B. When she returns from B to A, Lexy travels 5 miles at a rate of 15 miles per hour, so our formula tells us that 15T = 5, or T = 1/3. In other words, it only takes Lexy 1/3 of an hour, or 20 minutes, to return from B to A. Her total distance traveled for the round trip is 5+5=10 miles and her total time is 1+1/3=4/3 of an hour, or 80 minutes.
We have to give our final answer in minutes, so it makes sense to find Lexy's average rate in miles per minute, rather than miles per hour. 10 miles / 80 minutes = 1/8 miles per minute. This is Lexy's average rate.
 
We are told that Ben's rate is half of Lexy's, so he must be traveling at 1/16 miles per minute. He also travels a total of 10 miles, so (1/16)T = 10, or T = 160. Ben's round trip takes 160 minutes.
Alternatively, we could use a shortcut for the last part of this problem. We know that Ben's rate is half of Lexy's average rate. This means that, for the entire trip, Ben will take twice as long as Lexy to travel the same distance. Once we determine that Lexy will take 80 minutes to complete the round trip, we can double the figure to get Ben's time. 80 × 2 = 160.
The correct answer is D.
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Most Upvoted Answer
Lexy walks 5 miles from point A to point B in one hour, then bicycles ...
's speed. Who spends more time traveling?

Let's start by finding the total distance of the round trip. Lexy travels 5 miles from A to B and another 5 miles from B to A, for a total of 10 miles. Ben will also travel 10 miles in total.

Now let's find the time it takes each person to complete the trip. Lexy walks 5 miles in one hour, so her speed is 5 miles per hour. To find the time it takes her to bike back to point A, we can use the formula:

time = distance / speed

The distance is still 5 miles (the distance from B to A), but her speed is now 15 miles per hour. Plugging in the numbers, we get:

time = 5 / 15 = 1/3 hour

So it takes Lexy 1/3 hour (or 20 minutes) to bike back to point A. Her total travel time is therefore:

1 hour (walking) + 1/3 hour (biking) = 4/3 hours

Now let's find Ben's travel time. We know that Ben's speed is half of Lexy's, so his walking speed is 2.5 miles per hour. It will take him:

time = distance / speed = 5 / 2.5 = 2 hours

to walk to point B. To bike back to point A, his speed will be 7.5 miles per hour (half of Lexy's biking speed). Using the same formula as before, we get:

time = 5 / 7.5 = 2/3 hour

So it takes Ben 2/3 hour (or 40 minutes) to bike back to point A. His total travel time is therefore:

2 hours (walking) + 2/3 hour (biking) = 2 2/3 hours

Therefore, Ben spends more time traveling than Lexy.
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