Tourist covered 600km. Every day he would go the same number of kilometers. If the tourist went 10km more every day, then he would travel for 5 days less. How many days did the tourist travel?

The answer is suppose to be 20 days, but I have no idea how to find it

1 Answer
Nov 9, 2015

t = 20

Explanation:

Let d be the distance traveled by the tourist every day.
Let t be the number of days the tourist traveled to cover 600 km

600 = dt

=> t = 600/d

If the tourist traveled 10 km more, he'll have to travel 5 days less

=> t - 5 = 600/(d + 10)

But t = 600/d

=> 600/d -5 = 600/(d + 10)

=> (600 - 5d)/d = 600/(d + 10)

=> (600 - 5d)(d + 10) = 600d

=> 600d + 6000 - 5d^2 - 50d = 600d

=> 6000 - 5d^2 - 50d = 0

=> -5d^2 - 50d + 6000 = 0

=> d^2 + 10d - 1200 = 0

=> (d + 40)(d - 30) = 0

=> d = -40, d = 30

But since we are talking about distance, the value should be positive.

=> d = 30


Now, to get the number of days traveled

t = 600/d

=> t = 600/30

=> t = 20