JAMB 1991 · UME · Q14

A car travels from Calabar to Enugu, a distance of pp km, at an average speed of uu km/h, and continues to Benin, a distance of qq km, at an average speed of ww km/h. Find its average speed from Calabar to Benin.

Worked solution (try it first)
  1. Time is distance over speed: the two legs take pu\dfrac pu and qw\dfrac qw hours.
  2. Add them over the common denominator uwuw: total time =wp+uquw= \dfrac{wp + uq}{uw}.
  3. Average speed is total distance over total time: (p+q)÷wp+uquw=uw(p+q)wp+uq(p + q) \div \dfrac{wp + uq}{uw} = \dfrac{uw(p + q)}{wp + uq}, option C.

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