Solution:Speed of boat A in still water = 20 km/hrSpeed of boat B in still water = 16 km/hr
Speed of stream = 4 km/hr
The distance between P and Q is 360 km.
Meeting time of two bodies
= Distance between them / Relative speed
20 km/hr 16 km/hr
A ←────────────→ B
4 km/hr
P ───────────────────────── Q
360 km
The boat A starts from P and move towards Q with the speed of (20 + 4) = 24 km/hr
And boat B starts from Q and move towards P with the speed of (16 − 4) = 12 km/hr
∴ They will meet first time after
= 360/(24 + 12) = 10 hours
Distance traveled by boat A in 10 hrs = 240 Km,
therefore boat B has to travel 240 Km, whereas boat A now has to travel only 120 Km, to reach point P and Q respectively.
Time taken by boat A to travel 120 Km till point Q = 5 hrs
whereas in 5 hr boat B could only travel 60 Km (It has to travel 180 Km more to reach point P)
Time taken by boat B to reach point P will be = 180/12 = 15 hrs
Whereas boat A leaves point Q and starts moving towards point P upstream,
Distance travelled by boat A towards P in 15 hrs upstream, will be (20 - 4) × 15 = 240 Kms.
During this time boat B is in point P, while boat A is 240 kms away from point Q.
Time at which downstream boat B and upstream boat A will meet:
= 360 - 240 / 20 + 16 = 10/3 hrs
Therefore,
First meeting of boat A and boat B will be after 10 hrs.
Second meeting of boat A and boat B will be after 33hrs 20mins from the start.