Question

Butch and Sundance need to get out of Dodge. To travel as quickly as possible, each alternates walking and riding their only horse, Sparky, as follows. Butch begins by walking while Sundance rides. When Sundance reaches the first of the hitching posts that are conveniently located at one-mile intervals along their route, he ties Sparky to the post and begins walking. When Butch reaches Sparky, he rides until he passes Sundance, then leaves Sparky at the next hitching post and resumes walking, and they continue in this manner. Sparky, Butch, and Sundance walk at $6,$ $4,$ and $2.5$ miles per hour, respectively. The first time Butch and Sundance meet at a milepost, they are $n$ miles from Dodge, and they have been traveling for $t$ minutes. Find $n + t.$

Answer

Solution:

Walking a mile takes Sparky $10$ minutes, Butch $15,$ and Sundance $24.$ The horse advances along the same route as the men and is ridden over each mile by exactly one of them, so if Butch walks $x$ of the $n$ miles and rides the other $n - x,$ then Sundance rides those $x$ miles and walks the remaining $n - x.$

When they meet at a milepost they have been traveling for the same amount of time, so $15x + 10(n - x) = 10x + 24(n - x),$ which simplifies to $19x = 14n.$ Since the handoffs happen at mileposts, $x$ and $n$ are integers, and the smallest positive solution is $x = 14,$ $n = 19.$

Then $t = 15 \cdot 14 + 10 \cdot 5 = 260$ minutes, so $n + t = 19 + 260 = 279.$

2012 AIME I Problem 4

Solution:

Problem 4 in Other Years