Instructions

Comprehension:
A, B, C, D, E and F are the six police stations in an area, which are connected by streets as shown below. Four teams - Team 1, Team 2, Team 3 and Team 4 - patrol these streets continuously between 09:00 hrs. and 12:00 hrs. each day.

The teams need 30 minutes to cross a street connecting one police station to another. All four teams start from Station A at 09:00 hrs. and must return to Station A by 12:00 hrs. They can
also pass via Station A at any point on their journeys.
The following facts are known.
1. None of the streets has more than one team traveling along it in any direction at any point in time.
2. Teams 2 and 3 are the only ones in stations E and D respectively at 10:00 hrs.
3. Teams 1 and 3 are the only ones in station E at 10:30 hrs.
4. Teams 1 and 4 are the only ones in stations B and E respectively at 11:30 hrs.
5. Team 1 and Team 4 are the only teams that patrol the street connecting stations A and E.
6. Team 4 never passes through Stations B, D or F.

Question 31

How many times do the teams pass through Station B in a day?


Correct Answer: 2

Solution

It is given that none of the streets has more than one team traveling along it in any direction at any point in time (point 1), which implies at 9.00 hrs, all 4 teams have chosen different roots from the starting point.

It is also known that Teams 2 and 3 are the only ones in stations E and D respectively at 10:00 hrs, and Team 1 and Team 4 are the only teams that patrol the street connecting stations A and E.

It is only possible when Team 2 traveled (A-E) via F, and Team 3 reached station D via station C.

It is also known that Teams 1 and 3 are the only ones in Station E at 10:30 hrs, and Team 4 never passes through Stations B, D, or F. Hence, Team 1 must have chosen the (A-B) root at the starting point, and Team 4 has chosen the (A-E) root at 9.00 hrs.

Hence, Team 1 will reach B at 9.30, and come to A at 10.00 hrs. After that, they will go to E at 10.30 hrs.

Since Team 4 never passes through stations B, D, or F. Team 4 only can pass through stations A, E, and C.

Hence, the roots of team 4 to reach station E at 11.30 will be (A-E-A-C-A-E) or (A-E-A-E-A-E).

Since team 1 is already traveling to E from A at 10.00 hrs, at that time team 4 can't choose the same route. Hence, the final route for team 4 to reach E at 11.30 is (A-E-A-C-A-E), and at 12.00 hrs, team 4 will come back to station A.

Hence, the complete route diagram for team 4 is (A-E-A-C-A-E-A)

We can see that team 1 is at station E at 10.30 hrs, and they will reach station B at 11.30 hrs, which is only possible when they travel to B via A.

Hence, the complete route diagram for team 1 is (A-B-A-E-A-B-A). It is also known that Teams 1 and 3 are the only ones in station E at 10:30 hrs.

The only possible root for Team 2 at 10.00 hrs is from E to F since they can't choose E to D because Team 3 is already on this route. Since team 3 has to reach A at 12.00. The only possible combination for team 3 is E-D-C-A

Now the roots for team 2 going back to A is from F at 10.30 hrs (F-A-F-A) or (F-E-F-A).

Hence, the final table is given below:

From the table, we can see that the teams have passed through B 2 times in this given period.

Video Solution

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