2014 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 17

Problem

George walks $1$ mile to school. He leaves home at the same time each day, walks at a steady speed of $3$ miles per hour, and arrives just as school begins. Today he was distracted by the pleasant weather and walked the first $\frac{1}{2}$ mile at a speed of only $2$ miles per hour. At how many miles per hour must George run the last $\frac{1}{2}$ mile in order to arrive just as school begins today?

$\textbf{(A) }4\qquad\textbf{(B) }6\qquad\textbf{(C) }8\qquad\textbf{(D) }10\qquad \textbf{(E) }12$

Solution

Note that on a normal day, it takes him $1/3$ hour to get to school. However, today it took $\frac{1/2 \text{ mile}}{2 \text{ mph}}=1/4$ hour to walk the first $1/2$ mile. That means that he has $1/3 -1/4 = 1/12$ hours left to get to school, and $1/2$ mile left to go. Therefore, his speed must be $\frac{1/2 \text{ mile}}{1/12 \text { hour}}=\boxed{6 \text{ mph}}$ , and we are done.

2014 AMC 8 (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 16	Followed by Problem 18
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All AJHSME/AMC 8 Problems and Solutions

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2014 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 17

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