Expert: Josh - 3/3/2006

Question
a truck can hold 1000 (one thousand) litre of petrol . it want to transfer as many as it can to a site  3000 (three thousand) km apart and each km it travel it lose 1(one)  litre . how many litre it can be transfered  to that site ?

Answer
Hello Nabil,

I would think that the truck will never make it to the destination. If it loses 1 litre of fuel for each kilometer that it travels, 1000 litre of fuel can afford only a journey of (max) 1000 km. But the site is 3000 km away.

I assume that you have been careful copying the question and quoting the right figures, with the right units.

But, suppose the site is only 300 km away (instead of 3000 km away), then, the truck will make it to the site.

In this case, then, we lose 1 [litre/km] X 300 [km] = 300 litre of fuel. So, the truck arrives at its destination (which we assume to be 300 km away) with 1000-300=700 litre of petrol.

Hope this makes sense.