Two cars X and Y start from two places A and B respectively which are 700 km apart at 9 a.m. Both the cars run at an average speed of 60 km/hr. Car X stops at 10 a.m. and again starts at 11 a.m. while the other-car Y continues to run without stopping. Whe

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Q: 96 (IAS/2004)
Two cars X and Y start from two places A and B respectively which are 700 km apart at 9 a.m. Both the cars run at an average speed of 60 km/hr. Car X stops at 10 a.m. and again starts at 11 a.m. while the other-car Y continues to run without stopping. When do the two cars cross each other?

question_subject: 

Logic/Reasoning

question_exam: 

IAS

stats: 

0,6,1,1,6,0,0

keywords: 

{'average speed': [0, 2, 4, 2], 'cars': [0, 0, 5, 5], 'km': [0, 0, 2, 1]}

Each car travels at 60 km/hr. In one hour, so from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., each car would have traveled 60 km. However, car X stops at 10 a.m. for an hour, during which car Y continues to travel and covers another 60 km. So at 11 a.m., car Y has traveled 120 km while car X only 60 km, making the distance between them 520 km (700 km original distance - 180 km already traveled = 520 km).

Now, from 11 a.m., both cars travel towards each other at the same time again. As they are moving towards each other, the effective speed is the sum of their speeds, i.e., 60 km/hr + 60 km/hr = 120 km/hr. So, it would take 520/120 = 4.33 hours, which is approximately 4 hours and 20 minutes from 11 a.m.

So, 11 a.m. + 4 hours 20 min = 3.20 p.m. Therefore, options 1, 3 and 4 are not correct. Option 2 (3: 20 p.m.) corresponds to the time when the cars will