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1. Peter takes the underground train to work and uses an escalator at the railway station. If Peter runs up 8 steps of the escalator, then it takes him 67.5 seconds to reach the top of the escalator. If he runs up 15 steps of the escalator, then it takes him only 50.0 seconds to reach the top.
How many seconds would it take Peter to reach the top if he did not run up any steps of the escalator at all?
Answer:Answer:87.5
Solution:
If he runs up 8 steps, then he needs 67.5 seconds to reach the top.
If he runs up 15 steps, then he needs 50.0 seconds to reach the top.
The 7 additional steps take 17.5 seconds.
Therefore, each step takes 2.5 seconds.
Total steps in escalator = 8 + 67.5 / 2.5 = 35 or Total steps in escalator = 15 + 50.0 / 2.5 = 35.
If Peter did not run up any steps at all,
he would reach the top of the escalator in 87.5 seconds (i.e., 35 steps × 2.5 seconds/step).
Alternative Solution through Equations:
Let the total number of steps in the escalator be x.
The escalator moves at a constant speed given by