2023 AMC 8

Complete problem set with solutions and individual problem pages

Problem 15 Medium

Viswam walks half a mile to get to school each day. His route consists of 10 city blocks of equal length and he takes 1 minute to walk each block. Today, after walking 5 blocks, Viswam discovers he has to make a detour, walking 3 blocks of equal length instead of 1 block to reach the next corner. From the time he starts his detour, at what speed, in mph, must he walk, in order to get to school at his usual time?

  • A.

    4

  • B.

    4.2

  • C.

    4.5

  • D.

    4.8

  • E.

    5

Answer:B

Solution 1

Note that Viswam walks at a constant speed of 60 blocks per hour as he takes 1 minute to walk each block. After walking 5 blocks, he has taken 5 minutes and has 5 minutes remaining to walk 7 blocks. Therefore, he must walk at a speed of 7 \cdot 60 \div 5 = 84 blocks per hour to get to school on time, from the time he starts his detour. Since he normally walks \frac{1}{2} mile, which is equal to 10 blocks, 1 mile is equal to 20 blocks. Therefore, he must walk at 84 \div 20 = 4.2 mph from the time he starts his detour to get to school on time, so the answer is \boxed{\textbf{(B)}\ 4.2}.

 

Solution 2

Viswam walks 10 blocks, or half a mile, in 10 minutes. Therefore, he walks at a rate of 3 mph. When he takes his detour, he must travel 7 blocks instead of 5. Our final equation is \frac{7}{5} \times 3 = \frac{21}{5} = \boxed{\textbf{(B)}\ 4.2}.