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Question P6 Same time, same distance

Today’s problem — free all day, every step. Every day has one.

Ice-cream stalls — Stall A and Stall B

At a school fair, Stall A and Stall B both scoop ice-cream cups for customers. Stall A scoops 4 more cups per minute than Stall B. The two stalls start scooping at the same time. After 45 minutes, Stall A closes to restock its tubs, while Stall B carries on scooping alone for another 15 minutes. By the time Stall B stops, both stalls have scooped the same total number of cups. Stall B stopped scooping at 3:15 p.m.

  1. (a) At what time did the two stalls start scooping?
  2. (b) How many cups did both stalls scoop altogether?

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Same time, same distance

Two travellers spend the same time, or cover the same distance.

In this one. Stall A's lead from being 4 cups/min faster for the shared 45 minutes is exactly what Stall B must scoop during its extra 15 minutes.

the same time for bothfasterslowerthe gap grows by 2 shares per hour

How to spot it

Two travellers set off together or one chases another, with constant speeds and a question about who is ahead, when they meet, or how far apart they are.

Common mistake

Children divide the whole distance by the difference in speed instead of dividing the gap between the travellers, or compare distances covered over different lengths of time.

Practise a similar question

Standard Aladdin and Jasmine were having a race on their magic flying carpets. They left the same starting point for the market at 13 00. Both of them did not change their speed throughout the journey. Aladdin travelled at a cons…
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