### XAT 2012 Question 72

Instructions

Answer question based on the following information.
Ramya, based in Shanpur, took her car for a 400 km trip to Rampur. She maintained a log of the odometer readings and the amount of petrol she purchased at different petrol pumps at different prices (given below). Her car already had 10 litres of petrol at the start of the journey, and she first purchased petrol at the start of the journey, as given in table below, and she had 5 litres remaining at the end of the journey.

Question 72

# Her car’s tank-capacity is 35 litres. Petrol costs 45/- litre in Rampur. What is the minimumamount of money she would need for purchasing petrol for the return trip from Rampur to Shanpur, using the same route? Assume that the mileage of the car remains unchanged throughout the route, and she did not use her car to travel around in Rampur.

Solution

Ramya's car has 5 litres in the tank. She can fill a maximum of 30 litres more as tank capacity is 35 litres.

The cost of petrol in Rampur is Rs. 45/litre. As the cost of petrol is lower at all the succeeding petrol pumps and hence to minimise the cost, she will fill enough petrol to reach first petrol pump i.e. 150 km.

Initially she can travel = $$8 \times 5 = 40$$ km using 5 litres of petrol

Hence to travel 110 km, she will need = $$\frac{110}{8} = 13.75$$ litre at the rate of Rs. 45/litre

On reaching the first petrol pump in the reverse journey, she will fill up enough petrol to reach the second petrol pump as the cost of petrol in the second pump is less than the cost of first pump and the distance is 50 km.

=> She needs = $$\frac{50}{8} = 6.25$$ litres at the rate of Rs. 40/litre

For the rest of the journey (200 km), she will need = $$\frac{200}{8} = 25$$ litres at the rate of Rs. 35/litre

$$\therefore$$ Total cost = $$(13.75 \times 45) + (6.25 \times 40) + (25 \times 35)$$

= $$618.75 + 250 + 875 = 1743.75 \approx Rs. 1744$$