A tap can fill a tank in 6 hours. After half the tank is filled, three more similar taps are opened. What is the total time taken to fill the tank completely?
Correct answer: B. 3 hrs 45 min
- A. 3 hrs 15 min
- B. 3 hrs 45 min
- C. 4 hrs
- D. 4 hrs 15 min
Explanation
The first tap fills half the tank in 6/2 = 3 hours. Three more similar taps make four taps, whose combined rate is 4/6 = 2/3 tank per hour, so the remaining half takes (1/2)/(2/3) = 3/4 hour = 45 minutes. The total time is 3 hours 45 minutes, and the likely mistake is choosing 4 hours by treating the extra taps as if they were opened from the start.
Report an error
The more specific you are, the faster it gets fixed. A source beats an opinion.
Prefer email? [email protected]
About Time and Work
Problems measure work through rates, treating each person's or machine's contribution as work completed per unit time. Questions cover combined work, efficiency, wages, alternate working schedules, pipes and cisterns, and men-days relationships, with care needed to distinguish time taken by one worker from the time required when workers act together.
Practise Arithmetic
1,060 free Arithmetic MCQs from Mathematics, each with the correct answer and an explanation. Unlimited attempts, no account needed.
Discussion
Stuck on an option, or know a faster way to get there? Ask or explain it here.
No comments yet. Be the first to explain this one.
Exams that ask Mathematics questions like this
Mathematics is on 76 papers prepared for on TestUstad, and all of them draw the same bank, so this question is worth knowing for every one of them.
More Time and Work questions
A cistern can be filled by a tap in 4 hours while it can be emptied by another tap in 9 hours. If both the taps are opened simultaneously, then after how much time will the cistern get filled?
A man was employed on the promise that he will be paid the highest wages per day. The contract money to be paid was Rs. 1189. Finally he was paid only Rs. 1073. For how many days did he actually work?
An officer was appointed on maximum daily wages on contract money of Rs. 4956. But on being absent for some days, he was paid only Rs. 3894. For how many days was he absent?
A large tanker can be filled by two pipes A and B in 60 minutes and 40 minutes respectively. How many minutes will it take to fill the tanker from empty state if B is used for half the time and A and B fill it together for the other half?
One pipe can fill a tank three times as fast as another pipe. If together the two pipes can fill the tank in 36 minutes, then the slower pipe alone will be able to fill the tank in:
A cistern is normally filled in 8 hours but takes two hours longer to fill because of a leak in its bottom. If the cistern is full the leak will empty it in.