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# If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2

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Math Expert
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If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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13 Aug 2012, 07:09
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If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 mile long, how many seconds did it take Car X to travel across the bridge?

(1) Car X drove onto the bridge exactly 3 seconds after Car Y drove onto the bridge and drove off the bridge exactly 2 seconds after Car Y drove off the bridge.
(2) Car Y traveled across the bridge at a constant speed of 30 miles per hour.

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Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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17 Aug 2012, 01:32
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SOLUTION

If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 mile long, how many seconds did it take Car X to travel across the bridge?

Let the time needed for car X to travel across the bridge be $$t_x$$ seconds and the time needed for car Y be $$t_y$$ seconds.

(1) Car X drove onto the bridge exactly 3 seconds after car Y drove onto the bridge and drove off the bridge exactly 2 seconds after car Y drove off the bridge --> car X needs 1 second less to travel across the bridge than car Y --> $$t_y=t_x+1$$. Not sufficient to calculate $$t_x$$.

(2) Car Y traveled across the bridge at a constant speed of 30 miles per hour. 30 miles per hour is $$\frac{30}{3600}=\frac{1}{120}$$ miles per second --> car Y needs $$t_y=\frac{(\frac{1}{2})}{(\frac{1}{120})}=60$$ seconds to travel across the bridge. Not sufficient to calculate $$t_x$$.

(1)+(2) $$t_y=t_x+1$$ and $$t_y=60$$ --> $$t_x=60-1=59$$. Sufficient.

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Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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16 Sep 2012, 21:43
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Bunuel

Can this not be vvorked out just vvith A

--> since distances are equal
then equate

SX. Tx = Sy. Ty

Is this not possible

then in that case statement 1 becomes sufficient please explain

Bunuel wrote:
SOLUTION

If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 mile long, how many seconds did it take Car X to travel across the bridge?

Let the time needed for car X to travel across the bridge be $$t_x$$ seconds and the time needed for car Y be $$t_y$$ seconds.

(1) Car X drove onto the bridge exactly 3 seconds after car Y drove onto the bridge and drove off the bridge exactly 2 seconds after car Y drove off the bridge --> car X needs 1 second less to travel across the bridge than car Y --> $$t_y=t_x+1$$. Not sufficient to calculate $$t_x$$.

(2) Car Y traveled across the bridge at a constant speed of 30 miles per hour. 30 miles per hour is $$\frac{30}{3600}=\frac{1}{120}$$ miles per second --> car Y needs $$t_y=\frac{(\frac{1}{2})}{(\frac{1}{120})}=60$$ seconds to travel across the bridge. Not sufficient to calculate $$t_x$$.

(1)+(2) $$t_y=t_x+1$$ and $$t_y=60$$ --> $$t_x=60-1=59$$. Sufficient.

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Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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16 Sep 2012, 22:48
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The question asks the time taken by X to cross the bridge.

How come? Statement 1 helps us to get the relationship between X and Y wrt time. It does not tell us the time taken by Y to cross

Statement 2 gives us the time taken by Y to cross the bridge.

Both the statements together are sufficient.

Hope this helps!

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Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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02 May 2013, 20:07
Banuel,

I'm not seeing it, is there a way you can list the three or four item being tested? and what makes the answer sufficient?

Time?
Rate of Speed?
Distance?
Any other?

Thanks.
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Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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03 May 2013, 03:52
laythesmack23 wrote:
Banuel,

I'm not seeing it, is there a way you can list the three or four item being tested? and what makes the answer sufficient?

Time?
Rate of Speed?
Distance?
Any other?

Thanks.

Not sure I understand what you mean...

Anyway, we need to get $$t_x$$.

From (1) we have that $$t_y=t_x+1$$ and from (2) we have that $$t_y=60$$, thus $$t_x=60-1=59$$.
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Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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03 May 2013, 16:43
In such questions, i look at the short concise option 1st. I look at B and it doesn't talk about one of the two cars. Eliminate answer choice B and D. Now look at A, it gives a relation between time.
We can form two eqn for two cars using speed distance formulae. For 1st car assume all capital letters for its calculations.
S= D/T
For 2nd car , assume small letters:
s=D/t

Now we know that t=T-1 since it took one sec less to travel the bridge.
We also know the length of the bridge. However we don't know the speeds of time in absolute numbers to determine the answer. So we can't get anywhere with the 2Eqns.

Now add info from B and we can compute our answer. hence C.
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Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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07 May 2013, 06:18
Bunuel wrote:
laythesmack23 wrote:
Banuel,

I'm not seeing it, is there a way you can list the three or four item being tested? and what makes the answer sufficient?

Time?
Rate of Speed?
Distance?
Any other?

Thanks.

Not sure I understand what you mean...

Anyway, we need to get $$t_x$$.

From (1) we have that $$t_y=t_x+1$$ and from (2) we have that $$t_y=60$$, thus $$t_x=60-1=59$$.

The concept being tested here is RTD right?
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Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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07 May 2013, 14:05
I dont know if i am wrong but all i did was use the formula speed = distance x time and they have given us both speed ie the rate traveled and the time so am i wrong?
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Posts: 45181
Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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08 May 2013, 06:04
I dont know if i am wrong but all i did was use the formula speed = distance x time and they have given us both speed ie the rate traveled and the time so am i wrong?

The formula is (speed)*(time)=(distance).
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Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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08 May 2013, 06:05
laythesmack23 wrote:
Bunuel wrote:
laythesmack23 wrote:
Banuel,

I'm not seeing it, is there a way you can list the three or four item being tested? and what makes the answer sufficient?

Time?
Rate of Speed?
Distance?
Any other?

Thanks.

Not sure I understand what you mean...

Anyway, we need to get $$t_x$$.

From (1) we have that $$t_y=t_x+1$$ and from (2) we have that $$t_y=60$$, thus $$t_x=60-1=59$$.

The concept being tested here is RTD right?

Yes, that's correct.
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Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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30 Jul 2013, 16:28
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If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 mile long, how many seconds did it take Car X to travel across the bridge?

(1) Car X drove onto the bridge exactly 3 seconds after Car Y drove onto the bridge and drove off the bridge exactly 2 seconds after Car Y drove off the bridge.
We don't know how long Car Y was on the bridge for. Therefore, we don't know how long Car X was on the bridge for.
INSUFFICIENT

(2) Car Y traveled across the bridge at a constant speed of 30 miles per hour.
This tells us nothing about Car X.
INSUFFICIENT

1+2)
If the bridge is 1/2 mile long and Car Y crossed it at 30MPH it would have taken exactly one minute to cross the bridge. If Car X followed behind Car Y by 3 seconds and left the bridge just two seconds after Y it gained one second on Y. Therefore, Car X crossed the bridge in 29 seconds.
SUFFICIENT

(C)
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Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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12 Jan 2014, 13:55
WholeLottaLove wrote:
If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 mile long, how many seconds did it take Car X to travel across the bridge?

(1) Car X drove onto the bridge exactly 3 seconds after Car Y drove onto the bridge and drove off the bridge exactly 2 seconds after Car Y drove off the bridge.
We don't know how long Car Y was on the bridge for. Therefore, we don't know how long Car X was on the bridge for.
INSUFFICIENT

(2) Car Y traveled across the bridge at a constant speed of 30 miles per hour.
This tells us nothing about Car X.
INSUFFICIENT

1+2)
If the bridge is 1/2 mile long and Car Y crossed it at 30MPH it would have taken exactly one minute to cross the bridge. If Car X followed behind Car Y by 3 seconds and left the bridge just two seconds after Y it gained one second on Y. Therefore, Car X crossed the bridge in 29 seconds.
SUFFICIENT

(C)

I think you mean 59 seconds. If it took one minute for Car Y to cross and Car X gained on Car Y by one second then the time it took would be 59 seconds.
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Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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30 Jul 2016, 08:38
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Bunuel wrote:
If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 mile long, how many seconds did it take Car X to travel across the bridge?

(1) Car X drove onto the bridge exactly 3 seconds after Car Y drove onto the bridge and drove off the bridge exactly 2 seconds after Car Y drove off the bridge.
(2) Car Y traveled across the bridge at a constant speed of 30 miles per hour.

We are given that Car X follows Car Y across a bridge that is ½ mile long. We need to determine the time, in seconds, it took Car X to travel the ½ mile across the bridge.

Statement One Alone:

Car X drove onto the bridge exactly 3 seconds after Car Y drove onto the bridge and drove off the bridge exactly 2 seconds after Car Y drove off the bridge.

From statement one, we know that Car X gained 1 second on Car Y while the two cars traveled over the bridge. Thus, Car X took 1 second less than Car Y took to cross the bridge. However, without knowing the actual time it took Car Y to cross the bridge, we still don't know the number of seconds it took Car X to cross it. Statement one alone is insufficient to answer the question. We can eliminate answer choices A and D.

Statement Two Alone:

Car Y traveled across the bridge at a constant speed of 30 miles per hour.

From statement two we can determine the time it took Car Y to cross the bridge.

time = distance/rate

time = (1/2)/30

time = 1/60 hour

Since 1 hour = 3,600 seconds, 1/60 hour = 3,600 x 1/60 = 60 seconds.

We know that Car Y took 60 seconds to travel across the bridge. However, we do not know anything about Car X, so statement two is insufficient to answer the question. We can eliminate answer choice B.

Statements One and Two Together:

Because we know that that Car Y took 60 seconds to travel across the bridge and Car X took 1 second less, we know that it took Car X 59 seconds to travel across the bridge.

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Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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28 Apr 2018, 20:33
Quote:
Because we know that that Car Y took 60 seconds to travel across the bridge and Car X took 1 second less, we know that it took Car X 59 seconds to travel across the bridge.

i am stuck at trying to infer that the difference between X's time and Y's time is 1 second from the first sentence..can't quite imagine what happened there..
Y starts travelling across the bridge .
3sec
X starts walking the bridge
Y finnishes
2 sec
X finnishes
....and ?
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Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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29 Apr 2018, 03:23
Quote:
Because we know that that Car Y took 60 seconds to travel across the bridge and Car X took 1 second less, we know that it took Car X 59 seconds to travel across the bridge.

i am stuck at trying to infer that the difference between X's time and Y's time is 1 second from the first sentence..can't quite imagine what happened there..
Y starts travelling across the bridge .
3sec
X starts walking the bridge
Y finnishes
2 sec
X finnishes
....and ?

Car Y completes 1/2 mile in 1 min as it covers 30 miles in 60 min
Y takes 60 s
Now car X starts and takes 60-3+2 sec to remain in bridge i.e. 59 sec
Both these info are present in two statement given.none alone is sufficient.

Give kudos this helps.

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If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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29 Apr 2018, 03:50
push12345 wrote:
Quote:
Because we know that that Car Y took 60 seconds to travel across the bridge and Car X took 1 second less, we know that it took Car X 59 seconds to travel across the bridge.

i am stuck at trying to infer that the difference between X's time and Y's time is 1 second from the first sentence..can't quite imagine what happened there..
Y starts travelling across the bridge .
3sec
X starts walking the bridge
Y finnishes
2 sec
X finnishes
....and ?

Car Y completes 1/2 mile in 1 min as it covers 30 miles in 60 min
Y takes 60 s
Now car X starts and takes 60-3+2 sec to remain in bridge i.e. 59 sec
Both these info are present in two statement given.none alone is sufficient.

Give kudos this helps.

Posted from my mobile device
Thanks ..maybe something obvious ..but still not clear to me ..
From both sentences :
Y 's speed 30m per h
But how to infer from the first sentence that X'time is less than Y's by 1 sec
. The only thing i'm sure of that X'speed is more than Y's.. because if say it was the same then the difference would still be 3 sec after Y ..so it is clearly faster. But by how much ?
How did you infer that time of X is 60(Y'time) -3+2 ?

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Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2 [#permalink]

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29 Apr 2018, 05:18
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I will try to explain by other approach.

Say both X and Y are standing where bridge starts.
Bridge is half mile .
X does not move.but Y starts on bridge.
We know Y would take 60sec to cross bridge.

So after 3 sec, y will remain on bridge for another 57 sec.and this is the same time when X starts on bridge.

Y remains for another 57 sec on bridge means X also spent 57 sec till now.

Y complete bridge.but X takes 2 sec more .so total time spent by X is 57+2=59 sec

None of statements alone are sufficient.U need both information to solve this.

Give kudos if you find this useful

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Re: If Car X followed Car Y across a certain bridge that is 1/2   [#permalink] 29 Apr 2018, 05:18
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