A policeman noticed a thief at a distance of 500 metres. The policeman started running and the thief also started running at the same time. The thief is running at a speed of 15 km/h. It took 15 minutes for the policeman to catch the thief. Find the speed of the policeman (in km/h).

Question

Accepted Answer

Let the speed of the policeman be x km/h. The thief is running at 15 km/h. The initial distance between them is 500 metres = 0.5 km. The time taken to catch the thief is 15 minutes = 15/60 = 0.25 hours. In 0.25 hours, the relative distance covered by the policeman over the thief is 0.5 km. So, (x - 15) × 0.25 = 0.5. Solving for x: (x - 15) × 0.25 = 0.5 ⇒ x - 15 = 0.5 / 0.25 = 2 ⇒ x = 17 km/h. Therefore, the speed of the policeman is 17 km/h.

Answer

Answer

Answer