On the route, the distance between the final stops is 5 km, 10 trams run. A tram passenger noticed

On the route, the distance between the final stops is 5 km, 10 trams run. A tram passenger noticed that oncoming trams pass by him every 2 minutes. Find the speed of the trams.

Given:

L = 5 kilometers = 5000 meters – the distance between the final stops on a certain route;

n = 10 – the number of trams running on this route;

t = 2 minutes = 120 seconds – the period of time during which the passenger notices oncoming trams.

It is required to determine v (meter / seconds) – the speed of the trams.

Suppose that trams are evenly distributed along the route, that is, at each moment of time n / 2 trams move in one direction, and n / 2 trams in the other.

Then, the distance between the trams will be:

s1 = s / (n / 2) = 2 * s / n.

The tram travels this distance in 2 * t time (since both trams move towards each other), that is, the tram speed will be equal to:

v = s1 / (2 * t) = 2 * s / (n * 2 * t) = 5000 / (10 * 120) = 5000/1200 = 4.2 m / s = 15 km / h.

Answer: the speed of the tram is 15 km / h.