Find the Capacity of the Water Tank?

690 Views Asked by At

A water tank has three taps attached, $A,B$ and $D$.

$A$ and $B$ fill the water tank completely in $\displaystyle\frac{25}{3}$ minutes and $\displaystyle\frac{25}{2}$ minutes, respectively.

$D$ drains water at the rate of $162$ $\text{L/min}$.

If the tank is initially full, and then all three taps are opened simultaneously, the tank is empty in $4$ minutes.

What is the capacity of water tank?

My try was the following:

Let capacity of tank be $x$.

Then Tap $A$ fills $\displaystyle\frac{12}{25}x$ litres in $4$ minutes and tap $B$ fills $\displaystyle\frac{8}{25}x$ litres in four minutes.

Thus total water filled in $4$ minutes is $\displaystyle\frac{4}{5}x$.

And tap $D$ will drain $162\times 4=648 $ litres in four minutes, thus $648=\displaystyle\frac{4}{5}x$, which implies $x=810$, but this is not the correct answer.

Where did I go wrong?

3

There are 3 best solutions below

0
On BEST ANSWER

Take $x$ as the capacity, the rate $a$ for $A$ is $\frac{3}{25}x$, the rate $b$ for $B$ is $\frac{2}{25}x$. The outflow rate for $D$ is $162$. So the net outflow rate with all taps open is $162-a-b$. Hence $x=4(162-a-b)=648-4a-4b$.

Thus we have $x=648-\frac{12}{25}x-\frac{8}{25}x$, so $x=\frac{25}{45}648=360$.

0
On

If the capacity of the tank is $x$, and we are assuming that at the outset the tank is completely filled, then we have:

$$x = 4*(\text{per minute outflow from tap D})\\-4*(\text{per minute inflow from tap A}) \\- 4*(\text{per minute inflow from tap B})$$

since the the difference of the left and right hand sides is 0, indicating that the tank is empty at the end of the four minutes.

Plugging in the rates from the problem set up, we get:

$$x = 4(162) - 4(\frac{3}{25}x) - 4(\frac{2}{25}x) = 648 - \frac{12}{25}x - \frac{8}{25}x$$

$$ \implies x = 648 - \frac{4}{5} x \implies \frac{9}{5}x = 648 \implies x = 360$$

I hope this helps.

0
On

Your method was good (the simplest), only you forgot that the tank was filled to start with !

The correct equation would thus be $648 = x + \frac{4x}{5} \to x = 360$