Time Speed & Distance

We will discuss following concepts in Time Speed Distance (TSD)

1. TSD Basics
2. Relative Speed applications in Trains
3. Boats & Streams
4. Races and Tracks

Introduction (TSD basics)

If a person travels from place p to q, we say, in a specified time he must be moved some
distance with respect to initial point. The basic relationship between speed, time and distance,
speed can be defined as the amount of distance covered in a given time.

The basic formulae is,

Speed (S)  Time (T) = Distance (D)
Here, speed may have units like km/hour, m/s, m/hour, depends on combination of
distance and time units. Speed is denoted by (s), time is denoted by (t), and distance is denoted
by (d).

Unit’s conversion

1 mile = 1.6 km
1 km = 1000 meters = 0.625 miles
1 hour = 60 minutes
1 minute = 60 seconds
1 hour = 60  60 seconds = 3600 seconds.
1 km/hour  1000meters/3600seconds =(5/18) m/s
1 m/s = (1/1000km)/ (1/3600hr) = (3600/1000) km/hour = (18/5) km

Suppose we say a car travels with 100 km/hr, it means it can cover 100 km in 1 hour i.e.
60 min. and car cover 100  (1/2) = 50 km in half an hour. Above formula is very important, it
can applied to the problems based on time, speed, distance, relative speeds, boats and streams,
circular tracks, races and even in clocks…etc.

Foundation Questions:

1. Walking at the rate of 2kmph a man cover certain distance in 2hr 45 min. running at a speed
of 11kmph the man will cover the same distance in?
(a) 30 min (b) 45 min (c) 60 min (d) none

2. Keerthi goes to office at a speed of 3km/h and returns to her home at a speed of 2 km/h. If
she takes 10 hours in all, what is the distance between her office and her home?
(a) 12 km (b) 24 km (c) 18 km (d) 20 km
 Time Speed & Distance

Concept - 01: Important Considerations

Case 1: If time is constant, equation becomes, speed is directly proportional to distance,
s  d. So, s  d, then d1 / d 2 = s1 / s2

3. If two cars started from P and Q points towards each other with speeds 60 km/hour and 80
km/hour respectively at the same time, distance between two points P and Q is 210 km,
then find
(1) the distance (in km) between P and meeting point R?
(a) 60 (b) 180 (c)120 (d) 90
(2) How much time (in mins) taken by them to meet?
(a) 60 (b) 90 (c) 120 (d) 100

4. Two friends 10 km apart start running towards each other at speeds of 10 km/hr and 14
km/hr respectively. After how much time will they meet each other? (UPSC CAPF 2022)
(a) 20 minutes (b) 25 minutes (c) 28 minutes (d) 30 minutes

5. P and Q are two points on a highway, 300 km apart. Two bikers A and B start at the same
time from P towards Q. The speed of B is 12 km/h less than that of A. On reaching point Q,
biker A immediately returns towards P. He meets B on the road at a place 60 km away from
Q. What is the speed of A? (UPSC CAPF (AC) 2025)
(a) 38 km/h
(b) 30 km/h
(c) 36 km/h
(d) 35 km/h

Case 2: If speed is constant, equation becomes time  distance, i.e. time directly
proportional to distance. Therefore, t1 / t2  d1 / d 2 .

6. Vivek and Bharath go home daily after office by office cab which has a speed of 40 kmph.
Vivek takes 20% more time than Bharath to reach his home. If Bharath’s house is at a
distance of 30 km from the office. Then calculation the distance of vivek’s house from the
office?
(a) 36 km (b) 44 km (c) 48 km (d) 32 km

Case 3: When distance is constant speed  1/time, speed is inversely proportion to time.
Therefore, s1 / s2  t2 / t1 .

7. Travelling at 3/5th of his usual speed, a man is late by 20 minutes. What is the usual time if
he travels with his usual speed? (CDS I 2025)
(a) 25 minutes (b) 30 minutes (c) 32 minutes (d) 35 minutes
 Time Speed & Distance

Concept -02: Relative Speed Concept:

Suppose there a situation when two cars are travelling with 80 km/hour and 60 km/hour
respectively. Does the first car speed 80 km/hour with respect to the second car? Does the second
car speed 60 km/hour with respect to the first one?

Never, whenever we need to find out speed of a moving body with respect to another moving
body, relative motion comes into picture. Whenever we say a car travelling with speed 80km/hr
we mean speed is 80km/hr with respect to a fixed or a stationary point.

Case 1: If they are moving in opposite direction, generally if a person is coming towards our side,
it takes less time to meet him, and compared to if he stay there only. Less time becomes speed
increasing so speeds will be add up, relative speed = s1 + s2 .

Case 2: Two moving bodies are moving in same direction with speeds s1 and s2 respectively,
relative speed becomes difference of the speeds of two bodies

 If s1 > s2 relative speed = s1 - s2

 If s1 < s2 relative speed = s2 - s1

8. Arun and Bhasker start from place P at 6 AM and 7.30 AM respectively and run in the same
direction. Arun and Bhasker run at 8 km/hr and 12 km/hr respectively. Bhasker overtake
Arun at
(a) 11.30 AM (c) 11 AM (c) 10.30 AM (d) 9 AM

9. A thief spotted by the police man from a distance of 400m, when police saw thief he started
running to caught him ever thief also running away, if the police man running with 9km/hr
and thief running away with 5km/hr, distance travelled by police to caught thief?
(a) 1 km (b) 900 m (c) 500 m (d) 400 m

Concept - 03: Traincrossing a pole/man/platform/bridge/train:

Whenever one object of certain length crosses another object of finite length, incrossing
the object completely it covers a distance equal to the sum of the [Link] distance to be
covered is independent of the direction in which it is crossingi.e. whether the two objects are
crossing each other in opposite directions or if oneis overtaking the other i.e. in same direction,
the distance to be covered for one tocompletely cross the other is the sum of the lengths.

Usually a train is crossing either a pole or a man (stationary or walking) or a platform or

bridge or another train (obviously moving). For all such cases you could use the following with
the modifications as noted below:
L1  L2
Time taken to cross =
S1  S2
If one of the object is a pole or a man, its length will be 0 (zero)
 Time Speed & Distance

If one of the object is stationary (e.g. pole, platform, bridge), its speed will be 0 (zero)

Case 1: If a train is crossing a station object (If does not have any length), time taken by
the train to cross
that object is,  t = l1 / s1 (Here, length of train l1 is distance) and length of object is zero
and speed of object is also zero.

Case 2: If a train crossing a stationary object which is having length of l2 , at speed s1 .

Total length is = l1 + l2 , so t = ( l1 + l2 )/ s1 .

Case 3: Train crossing a moving object (ex: person) without any length. In this case object also
moving, so we should take relative speed, let s2 be speed of moving object, relative speed
becomes,= s1 + s2 . If they moving in opposite direction. So, equation becomes, t = l1 / ( s1 + s2 )
If they are moving in same direction t = l1 / ( s1 – s2 )

Case 4: If the train is crossing another moving object at speed s2 with length ( l2 ). If they are
moving in the opposite direction t = ( l1 + l2 )/ ( s1 + s2 ). If they are moving in same direction t
= ( l1 + l2 )/ ( s1 – s2 )

10. A train 110 m long travels at 60 kmph. How long does it take?
(a) To pass a telegraph post by the side of the track?
(b) To pass a man running at 6 kmph in the same direction as the train?
(c) To pass a man running at 6 kmph in the opposite direction?
(d) To pass a station platform 240 m long?
(e) To pass another train 170 m long, running at 40 kmph in the same direction?
(f) To pass another train 170 m long, running at 60 kmph in the opposite direction?

11. Two trains X and Y are travelling in the same direction at 100 km/hr and 60 km/hr
respectively. Train X crosses a man in train Y in 9 seconds. What is the length of train X? (CDS
II 2025)
(a) 80 m (b) 100 m (c) 120 m (d) 150 m

Concept -04: (Boats & Streams) Concepts

Problems on boats and streams based on basic equation of speed &time. Speed of the boat
(speed of its own), which is also called the speed of the boat in still water ( s b ). Here still water
won’t have any speed.
Speed of the stream (or) water current ( ss ).
Total movement of the boat depends on three cases.

Case 1: If the boat is moving in still water, speed of the movement is given by = s b . (Since, there
is no movement for water).
 Time Speed & Distance

Case 2: If the boat is moving against the flow of stream (or) water, known as moving up stream,
so the speed of movement is given by us = s b – ss

Case 3: If the boat is moving down stream (along with water flow (or) stream), speed of
movement is given by d s = s b + ss .

In some questions, they may ask swimmer (or) cyclist cycling along with wind (instead of
boat/river), the procedure will be same for above all the problems.

Note: Do not confuse with relative speed

12. A man goes down stream at x km/h and upstream at y km/h. The speed of the
boat in still water is:
(a) 0.5 (x + y) (b) 0.5 (x - y) (c) x + y (d) x – y

13. A boat speed is 6 km/hr in still water, if stream running at 3km/hour, how much time
it takes to reach a place and comeback, if the distance between starting point and a place
is 63 km?
(a) 20 hours (b) 24 hours (c) 30 hours (d) 28 hours

14. A man can row with the speed 8 km/hour in still water, if the stream is moving with 4
km/hour, it takes 3 hour to row a place and come back, find the distancebetween
starting point and the place?
(a) 12 km (b) 9 km (c) 18 km (d) 15 km

Concept -05: Tracks & Races Concepts

We know that whenever it is required to compare speeds of two (or) more

bodiesrelative speed comes into picture. Take a case, when two (or) more bodies are
movingaround circular path (or) track the relative speed depends on the direction, if they are
moving in the same direction relative speed is equal to difference of their speeds. If theyare
moving in the opposite direction relative to speed is equal to sum of their speed. Suppose two
(or) more persons start the race we are interested in knowing two things

(i) Meeting at starting Point for the first time: Answer is always LCM of timings,
let usunderstand with an example.

15. A and B start from the same point at the same time the circular track. A finish
one full cycle in 36 seconds and B finish same in 45 seconds. Find the time when
they will meet for the first time at starting point if they run in
1) Same direction
2) Opposite direction
(a) 270 (b) 360 (c) 90 (d) 180

(ii) First meeting at any point on track (other than starting point): This is
completely a different situation.
 Time Speed & Distance

16. In a circular race of a length 2700m, if A and B start from the same point with
speeds 27km/hrand 18km/hr respectively. Find the time taken by them for the
first meet if they travel in,
(1) Moving in Same direction
(a) 1080 (b) 540 (c) 216 (d) 270

(2) Moving in Different direction

(a) 1080 (b) 540 (c) 216 (d) 270

Problems on Races

A and B two persons are contesting in a race competition, If A has reached the winning
point still B has another 20 meters to reach destination, we say that A has won the race by 20
meters. If A reaches the winning post by 10 seconds before B reaches, we say A has won the
race by 10 seconds.

Special Case: If one of the person starts little later than other one.

(i) Suppose, A starts first and he covered 100 meters, then B starts, we say A has start
of 100m.
If race length is 1000 m then A has to cover 1000 – 100 = 900 m and B has to cover
1000m.
If A starts the race first, after 10 seconds, then B starts, then we say A has a start of
10 seconds.

(ii) If, we say A gives B a start of 100m.

Then B has to cover 1000 – 100 = 900 m and A has to cover 1000m.
If B starts the race first, after 10 seconds, then A starts, then we say A gives a start of
10 seconds.

17. A runs with 40m/s and B runs with 30 m/s, if A beats B by 40 meters,
find the length of the race?

18. A can run 1km race in 6min and B can cover the same distance in 6min 40
seconds, by what distance can A beat B?

19. In a 1km race, A beats B by 40 meters (or) 20 seconds, find the time (in minutes)
taken by A to finish the race?

20. If the ratio of speeds of ‘A’ and ‘B’ is 5 : 6 and ‘B’ allows ‘A’ a start of 70 metres in
a 1.2 km race, who will win the race and by what distance? (UPSC EPFO 2021)
(a) ‘A’ wins by 30 m.
(b) ‘B’ wins by 200 m.
(c) ‘B’ wins by 130 m.
(d) The race finishes in a dead heat.