Question 2
The distance between two ports M and N is 2,100 km. If two ships travel towards each other with one ship leaving port M at 20 km/h and at the same time another ship from port N travels at 15 km/h, how:
(a) long will it take the two ships to meet?
(b) far will they be from port M when they meet?
Observation
The Chief Examiner reported that majority of the candidates’ attempted this question. The formation of the required equation of speed, distance and time was not well understood by the candidates.
In part(a), they were expected to get the distance travelled by both ships as implies 35t = 2100. Solving gives t = 60 hours.
In part (b), they were expected to substitute 60 hours for t in to give 20 60 = 1200 km. therefore, distance from port M = 1200 km.