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Speed Distance Time for Dummies

Thereā€™s been quite a bit of talk recently on the numerical reasoning tests at OASC, along with people asking how to do the sums quickly in your head ā€“ so here we go.

Top Tips!

Know your times tables as best you can.

Learn the following time/speed patterns

There are 2 periods of 30 minutes in an hour

There are 3 periods of 20 minutes in an hour

There are 4 periods of 15 minutes in an hour

There are 5 periods of 12 minutes in an hour

There are 6 periods of 10 minutes in an hour

There are 10 periods of 6 minutes in an hour

There are 12 periods of 5 minutes in an hour

There are 15 periods of 4 minutes in an hour

There are 20 periods of 3 minutes in an hour

There are 30 periods of 2 minutes in an hour

At 60mph, you travel one mile, every minute.


Working out SPEED

What speed covers 15 miles in 2 hours and 30 mins?

Ok so... Speed = distance/time

Firstly, you must change the time into minutes. If it is already in minutes, leave it!

So 2 hours 30 minutes = 150 minutes

Ok so... Speed = distance/time

Speed = 15/150

Now, you need to cancel down your fraction, until the denominator (the bottom half of the fraction) can be multiplied easily into 60 (minutes). All will become clear...

Speed = 15/150

Speed = 1/10

Now is the easy bit (if you can remember the figures in red above). You need to times the denominator, until it fits perfectly into 60. In this example, clearly it is 6 ā€“ as 10 fits in 60, 6 times. You now need to do the same with the numerator (the top fraction) to give you the final answer.

Speed = 1/10

Speed = 1 x 6 (because 10 goes into 60, 6 times).

Speed = 6mph.

Ok so that was long winded, but hopefully it was reasonably clear? Iā€™ll do another example now which is slightly different, and then some more without notes.

What speed covers 17 miles in 20 mins?

In this example, we donā€™t need to convert hours into minutes, because it is already done for us.

So...a little faster this time...

Speed = distance/time

Speed = 17/20 (how many times does 20 go into 60 minutes?)

Speed = 17 x 3 (3 x 20 =60 minutes)

Speed = 51mph

Working out TIME

The method above can be used to work out time also.

At 20 mph, how long does it take to travel 68 miles?

Time = distance/speed

Time = 68/20

Similar to the SPEED method, the denominator must go into 60 (minutes). In this case, 20 goes into 60, three times.

Time = 68/20 (how many times does 20 go into 60 minutes?)

Time = 68 x 3 (3 x 20 = 60 minutes)

Time = 204 minutes

Whatā€™s important to remember, is that 204 is NOT the answer. You must now convert this into hours and minutes.

1 hour = 60 minutes

2 hours = 120 minutes

3 hours = 180 minutes

4 hours = 240 minutes

Therefore 204 minutes = 3 hours, 24 minutes.

Working out DISTANCE

To be totally honest, my method isnā€™t that good for this. But this is what I would do:

At 120 mph, how far do you travel in 1 hour and 15 mins?

Distance = speed x time

Distance = 120 x 1 hour and 15 minutes (convert into minutes)
Distance = 120 x 75 = 9000 (as you can see this is where it turns into a nightmare)

If you divide this number by 60 (minutes in an hour) then you should get the right answer.

Distance = 120 x 75

Distance = 9000 divided by 60 (minutes in an hour)

Distance = 150 miles

150 is the correct answer, but Iā€™ve have had to write that down and it would have taken quite some time. That was a particularly nasty example itā€™s not normally that bad. Some you can do easily in your head without doing any of this. For example...

At 27 mph, how far do you travel in 1 hour and 20 mins?

Well think about it. At 27 mph how far do you travel in ONE hour? 27 miles obviously.

At 27 mph, how far do you travel in 20 minutes. You can do this in your head.

Whatā€™s a third (3 times 20 = 1 hours) of 27? 9 obviously.

So now...
27 + 9 = 36 miles


Hopefully this has helped some of you with your methods. Try these questions below.

OASC Numerical Reasoning

You burn 25kgs of fuel per minute. How much fuel do you burn per hour?

You burn 30kgs of fuel per minute. How much do you use in 45 minutes?

You burn 30kgs of fuel per hour. How much do you use in 15 minutes?

You burn 400kgs of fuel per hour. How much do you burn in 20 minutes?

You burn 380kgs of fuel per hour. How much do you burn in 1 hour 20 minutes?

You burn 20kgs of fuel per minute. How much do you burn in 1 hour 50 minutes?

You burn 5kgs of fuel per minute. How much do you use in 2 hours 15 minutes?

You burn 150kgs of fuel per hour. How much do you burn in 10 minutes?

You have used 280kgs of fuel in the past 80 minutes. How much do you burn per hour?

You travel 330 miles. How much have you used if you burn 160kgs an hour, if you are travelling at 220mph?

You travel an average speed of 280kts. How much fuel do you need for a 70 mile trip, if you burn 140kgs per hour?

You travel 120 miles in 45 minutes. How much fuel have you used if you burn 200kgs per hour?

You are burning 4kgs of fuel per minute. How much fuel will you need for a 220 mile trip if you average 150mph?

You are facing north. You turn 90 degrees to your left, then 180 to your right and 270 to your left again. Which way are you facing?

You are facing south. You turn 270 degrees to your right, then 90 degrees to your left and 180 degrees to your left. Which way are you facing?

You are facing west. You turn 180 degrees to your left and 270 degrees to your right, 90 to your left, 180 to your right. And then another 270 degrees to your right. Which way are you facing?

You are facing east. You turn 360 degrees to your right, 90 degrees to your right again, 270 degrees to your left and 190 to your right. Which way are you facing?

You are facing north. You turn 90 degrees to your left, 180 to your right and 90 back to your left and finally 270 degrees back to your right. Which way are you facing?

You are facing north. You turn 90 degrees to your left, 180 to your right and 90 back to your left and finally 270 degrees back to your right. Which way are your facing?

You are facing north. You turn 270 degrees to your left and then another 180 degrees to your left and then 270 back to your right. Which way are you facing?

You are called to an airbase 210 miles away. How long will it take you to get there if you travel at 175mph?

You are called to an airbase at19:27. The base is 45 miles away and you are travelling in the opposite direction assuming you are travelling at 180mph and it will take 5 minutes to turn, how long will it take to get to the base?

You arrive at 18:30 after leaving at 16:45. How far have you come if you averaged 300mph?

You leave at 08:15 and arrive at 09:30. What speed have you been travelling if the journey was 250 miles away?

You leave at 17:00 and arrive at 19:30. What speed have you been doing if the journey was 120 miles away?

You travel 30 miles in 4 minutes. How fast are you going?

You are travelling at 90mph. How far do you go in 6 minutes?

You are travelling at 280mph. How far will you go in 45 minutes?

You reach your destination in 50 minutes, You travelled an average speed of 360mph. How far is it?

You travel 600 miles in 1.5 hours. How fast are you going?

You travel 480 miles in 20 minutes. How fast are you going?

It takes 45 minutes to travel 90 minutes. How far will you go in 1.5 hours and how fast are your going?

You leave your base at 09:42 and travel 135 miles north to your destination. You average 180mph, what time do you arrive?

You arrive at your designation at 00:13. You travelled 450 miles at an average speed of 300mph. What time did you leave?

You average 300mph, how far did you go in 50 minutes?

At 280mph how far did you go in 2 hours 6 minutes?

You leave your base at 14:52 and arrive at your destination at 17:07. You averaged 320mph. How far is it?

You arrive at your destination at 19:22. You have been travelling for 3 hours 40 minutes and have been travelling at 90mph. What did you leave and how far have you come?

You leave at 01:57 and arrive at 03:39. How long have you been travelling?

You leave at 15:53 and arrive at 05:48. How long have you been travelling?

You arrive at 15:13 and you left at 11:20. How long have you been travelling?

You arrive at 17:00 and you left at 14:39. How long have you been travelling?

You travel for 77 minutes. What time will you arrive if you leave at 13:59?

You travel for 1 hour 51 minutes. What time will you arrive if you are leaving at 18:40?

You leave at 06:00 and arrive at 09:57. How long have you been travelling?

You leave at 10:49 and arrive at 00:18 How long have you been travelling?

You arrive at 19:36 and you left at 14:19. How long have you been travelling?

You arrive at 16:40 and you left at 13:20. How long have you been travelling?

If you travel for 90 minutes after leaving at 17:38, what time will you arrive?

You travel for 2 hours 8 minutes. What time did you leave if you arrive at 09:17?

You travel for 11 minutes. What time will you arrive if you left at 05:30?

You arrive at 12:50, what time did you leave if you travelled for 49 minutes?

You left at 08:00 and arrived at 09:33. How long have you travelled?

You arrive at 22:18 and you left at 13:09. How long have you been travelling?

You leave 01:03 and arrive at 04:40. How long have you travelled?

You travel for 2 hours and 58 minutes. What time did you leave if you arrived at 19:40?

You have two legs to your journey. One takes 73 minutes, the other 48 minutes. What time did you leave if you arrived at 05:30?

You have three legs to your journey. The first takes 1 hour and 27 minutes, the next takes 13 minutes, and the last leg takes 2 hours and 11 minutes. What time did you leave if you arrive at 16:05?

You have had four legs to your journey. One takes 14 minutes, the next takes 44 minutes, the next takes 2 hours 53 minutes and the final leg takes 17 minutes. What time will you arrive if you leave at 07:55 hours assuming you have a 5 minute break between each leg?

You leave at 03:42 and arrive at 07:55. How long have you been travelling?

It takes 20 minutes for you to prep your aircraft and get it airborne. At 14:40 you are told to leave immediately for a refuelling sortie. You must reach location A in 40 minutes to refuel two jets. Location A is 180 miles away. The two jets will need 400Ibs of fuel each and your aircraft burns 800Ibs of fuel an hour. Each aircraft will take 10 minutes to refuel.

A) What speed must you travel to arrive on time,

B) How much fuel will you need

C) What time will you land back at base?

Peter gives you a call and asks to be dropped off at RAF Valley. You must pick him up from RAF Oddiham, which is 95 miles away and drop him off at his destination, which is a further 395 miles away. You receive the call at 17:39 and you are airborne 36 minutes later. What speed must you average if you are to get him to RAF Valley on time for the party at 20:00.

You are due to pick up Si Peter Squire from his favourite bowling green in the Arabian dessert at 09:50. Your base is 480 miles away and it will take exactly 20 minute to get airborne. Assuming it takes 13 minutes to load Peter Squires balls into the aircraft, what time should you arrive back at base and what average speed much you maintain if you get the call at 07:30?

You burn 1200IBs of fuel an hour travelling at 360kts. How much fuel will you need to travel 780 miles?

You travel 70 miles on your first leg, 240 miles on your next leg and 80 miles on your last leg. What speed are you doing if it takes you 1 hour and 20 minutes?

How fast are you going if you ravel 40 miles in 5 minutes?

How fast are you going if you travel 2 miles in 30 seconds?

How long will it take to cover 690 miles if you are travelling at 115mph?

How long will it take to travel 70 miles if you are travelling at 210mph?

How far will you travel at 330mph for 40 minutes?

How far will you travel at 4mph for 15 minutes?

How fast are you going if you travel at 180 miles in 1 hour 20 minutes?

How long will it take to cover 90 miles if you travel at 320mph?

How far will you travel if you are doing 70mph for 15 minutes

Thanks to InaSpin for the next section.

What speed covers 175 miles in 2 hours and 30 mins?

At 28 mph, how far do you travel in 1 hour and 30 mins?

At 7 mph, how far do you travel in 2 hours?

At 80 mph, how long does it take to travel 36 miles?

At 12 mph, how far do you travel in 20 mins?

At 5 mph, how long does it take to travel 18 miles?

At 68 mph, how long does it take to travel 136 miles?

At 195 mph, how far do you travel in 1 hour and 4 mins?

At 40 mph, how far do you travel in 24 mins?

What speed covers 17 miles in 51 mins?

What speed covers 84 miles in 3 hours?

What speed covers 4 miles in 40 mins?

What speed covers 70 miles in 2 hours and 30 mins?

What speed covers 15 miles in 36 mins?

At 2 mph, how long does it take to travel 18 miles?

What speed covers 4 miles in 24 mins?

What speed covers 48 miles in 30 mins?

At 15 mph, how long does it take to travel 3 miles?

At 8 mph, how far do you travel in 10 hours?

At 80 mph, how long does it take to travel 84 miles?

At 22 mph, how long does it take to travel 22 miles?

At 5 mph, how long does it take to travel 51 miles?

At 4 mph, how far do you travel in 2 hours and 15 mins?

At 30 mph, how long does it take to travel 60 miles?

What speed covers 6 miles in 3 hours?

What speed covers 54 miles in 30 mins?

At 55 mph, how far do you travel in 12 mins?

At 14 mph, how far do you travel in 1 hour? miles

At 20 mph, how long does it take to travel 19 miles?

At 17 mph, how long does it take to travel 17 miles?

At 6 mph, how far do you travel in 1 hour and 20 mins?

At 13 mph, how far do you travel in 1 hour? miles

At 66 mph, how far do you travel in 1 hour? miles

At 10 mph, how far do you travel in 4 hours and 48 mins?

At 25 mph, how long does it take to travel 15 miles? hrs mins

At 8 mph, how long does it take to travel 16 miles?

At 30 mph, how far do you travel in 1 hour and 44 mins?

What speed covers 5 miles in 5 hours?

At 130 mph, how long does it take to travel 52 miles?

At 2 mph, how long does it take to travel 13 miles?

At 120 mph, how long does it take to travel 36 miles?

At 120 mph, how far do you travel in 15 mins?

At 30 mph, how long does it take to travel 8 miles?

At 5 mph, how far do you travel in 2 hours and 24 mins?

What speed covers 6 miles in 2 hours?

At 15 mph, how long does it take to travel 16 miles?

What speed covers 84 miles in 30 mins?

At 16 mph, how far do you travel in 3 hours?

At 7 mph, how long does it take to travel 7 miles?

What speed covers 7 miles in 30 mins?

At 1 mph, how far do you travel in 10 hours?

At 9 mph, how far do you travel in 40 mins?

At 3 mph, how far do you travel in 4 hours?

At 12 mph, how far do you travel in 1 hour and 25 mins?

What speed covers 6 miles in 10 mins?

At 4 mph, how long does it take to travel 45 miles?

What speed covers 240 miles in 80 hours?

What speed covers 34 miles in 40 mins?

What speed covers 65 miles in 1 hour?

At 19 mph, how long does it take to travel 19 miles?

What speed covers 60 miles in 50 mins?

At 8 mph, how long does it take to travel 8 miles?

At 5 mph, how long does it take to travel 5 miles?

At 18 mph, how long does it take to travel 30 miles?

At 304 mph, how far do you travel in 1 hour and 15 mins?

What speed covers 34 miles in 40 mins?

At 20 mph, how far do you travel in 27 mins?

What speed covers 40 miles in 3 hours and 20 mins?

At 80 mph, how long does it take to travel 48 miles?

What speed covers 1 miles in 3 mins?

At 3 mph, how far do you travel in 5 hours and 40 mins?

At 18 mph, how long does it take to travel 42 miles?

At 104 mph, how long does it take to travel 104 miles?

At 162 mph, how long does it take to travel 135 miles?

What speed covers 16 miles in 8 hours?

What speed covers 6 miles in 15 mins?

What speed covers 12 miles in 48 mins?

At 95 mph, how far do you travel in 1 hour and 12 mins?

What speed covers 13 miles in 13 hours?

What speed covers 16 miles in 12 mins?

At 12 mph, how far do you travel in 2 hours and 40 mins?

What speed covers 85 miles in 3 hours and 24 mins?

At 11 mph, how long does it take to travel 44 miles?

What speed covers 72 miles in 7 hours and 12 mins?

At 36 mph, how far do you travel in 1 hour?

At 30 mph, how long does it take to travel 70 miles?

What speed covers 176 miles in 4 hours?

At 3 mph, how long does it take to travel 3 miles?

What speed covers 64 miles in 48 mins?

What speed covers 18 miles in 18 hours?

Really hope that this helps some of you out. Good luck at OASC to all.

QM
(edited 8 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
:rofl:
Reply 2
BlackHawk
:rofl:


Shush you, no one else saw what happened!
Reply 3
:ninja:

We have very similar ways of doing it, you divided to 3 whereas I did it to 6.

Hopefully this will explain it easily to some people though. :biggrin:
Speed
How fast are you going if you travel at 180 miles in 1 hour 20 minutes?

The aim is to find your speed in Miles per HOUR

So you are going to have to do some fraction work to turn it into an hour.

Anything over an hour is always a top heavy fraction and always easily divisible.

Solution:

1hr 20 = 80min or 4 lots of 1/3 of an hour --> therefore 4/3

So 180/4 gives you your speed/20mins of time. so 45mph
To turn 45 into an hour you need to mulitply by 3 as 20min = 1/3

45*3 = 135Mph

RULE OF THUMB:
Break the time into segments
Turn it into a fraction
Divide by the top
Multiply by the bottom to make 1 hour

Easy Speed Numbers Miles/hr, Kts, Km/Hr - 6x Table
Often found in aviation related questions.... E.g. Grob Tutor cruises at 120kts or 2 mile/min

60 = 1 mile/min
90 = 1.5 mile/min
120 = 2 mile/min
150 = 2.5 mile/min
180 = 3 mile/min
210 = 3.5 mile/min
240 = 4 mile/min
270 = 4.5mile/min
300 = 5 mile/min
330 = 5.5 mile/min
360 = 6 mile/min
390 = 6.5 mile/min
420 = 7 mile/min
450 = 7.5 mile/min
480 = 8 mile/min
510 = 9.5 mile/min
540 = 9 mile/min
570 = 9.5 mile/min
600 = 10 mile/min

You are travelling at 120 miles/hr, how long will it take to travel 400miles?
Divide by 2 to give the answer in minutes --> 200mins or --> 3hr20

Distance
The easiest one....

You are travelling at 36mph/ How far do you go in 10mins?
In 1 hour you would travel 46miles.
10mins is 1/6 of an hour - 1/6 of 36 miles is 6 miles

You are travelling at 300kts. How far do you travel in 3 hours and 30 mins?
300 kts or NAUTICAL MILES/HOUR
3 hours would therefore be 300 x 3 = 900.
30 mins in 1/2 of an hour so divide 300/2 = 150 + 900 = 1050. Easy.

How far do you travel at 86 miles/hour in 50 mins?
50mins is 5/6 of 1 hour
Find 5/6 of 86.
86/6 = 14 and 1/3
Multiply by 5 to make 5/6 = 71 to the nearest whole number.

During the Airborne Maths part of the aptitude tests, marks are awarded for closeness as well as an accurate answer. The nearest whole number will suffice. Don't just practise the easy stuff! Practise multiplying fractions to get the nearest whole number.
Reply 5
Do you think maybe we should sticky this?
a sixth of 46 isn't 6!
Reply 7
No its not. Did I write that? :s-smilie:
Reply 8
I'll get some more examples put together to show the methods working in different ways. Then it might be worth a sticky.
threeportdrift
a sixth of 46 isn't 6!


Yeh my bad... 4 and 3 are really close together. Good spot TPD.
Yeh can you make this a sticky Nic? If aymore genii out there spot errors please point them out. This thread was written by Dummies, for Dummies :wink:
Reply 10
InaSpin
Yeh my bad... 4 and 3 are really close together. Good spot TPD.
Yeh can you make this a sticky Nic? If aymore genii out there spot errors please point them out. This thread was written by Dummies, for Dummies :wink:


How dare you. It's too soon for jokes like that after the rep incident. :rolleyes:
Good edits.

If people want to use this thread for help with questions too then it'd be nice to keep it all in one place.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Reply 13
Chicken obviously. How can you have an egg without a chicken, just silly!

QM :smile:
Reply 14
Some really useful stuff here. I think I got some similar, if not the same stuff from my SCLO and it really helped. I did some the morning of the Aptitude Tests in my room and passed fine so this is a really valuable resource both for the aptitude and for planning exercises.
Reply 15
oh my god. i think i need to work on this a bit more. alot more. how long did it take u guys? are they really expecting us to be this good?:confused:
If you want to get a good score on aptitude and have less stress on the group and individual planning, then yes. Given that the individual planning is very easy SDT, group planning is a bit harder but not as hard as some of these which are more akin the aptitude.
Reply 17
adi88
oh my god. i think i need to work on this a bit more. alot more. how long did it take u guys? are they really expecting us to be this good?:confused:


Mate don't worry about it. Two weeks ago I couldn't do them at all, and I've just written a sticky to help other out now!!! (not that I'm the best by any stretch of the imagination!)

QM :smile:
Reply 18
cheers mate. just bricking it now, feeling like my mind is going to turn to mush. another question, bit unrelated but do they send a certain amount home after the first few days?
Nope. Not many go home now unless you V/w or fail aptitude for say WSO and don't wish to continue with another branch. Or if you are untterly USELESS at interview and I mean USELESS as they try and keep on as many as possible for the planning exercises and to give people a chance to give OASC a go.

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