Question

A rabbit and a tortoise are in a race. The tortoise, being the slower of the two, is given a headstart. The rabbit runs at a speed of 40 mi/h and the tortoise at 10 mi/h. If the rabbit catches up with the tortoise in 2 minutes, how much of a headstart did the tortoise get?

• A. $\frac{4}{3}mi$
• B. $1mi$
• C. $\frac{1}{3}mi$
• D. $2mi$

Answer 1

The correct option is B $1mi$

$\text{Time taken for the rabbit to catch up with}\text{the tortoise}=2minutes$

$\text{Speed of catching up}$
$=Rabbi{t}^{\prime }sspeed–Tortois{e}^{\prime }sspeed$
$=40mi/h–10mi/h$
$=30mi/h$

$\text{Distance to cover for the rabbit to catch up}\text{with the tortoise}$

$=Speedofcatchingup\times Time$
$=30mi/h\times 2minutes$
$=30mi/h\times \frac{2}{60}hour$
$=1mi$