Question
There are n pipes that fill a tank. Pipe 1 can fill the tank in 2 hours, Pipe 2 in 3 hours, Pipe 3 in 4 hours and so on. Pipe 1 is kept open for 1 hour, pipe 2 for 1 hour, then pipe 3 and so on. In how many hours will the tank get filled completely?
Explanation
Almost all questions can be approached well by asking the question "What happens in 1 hour" (or 1 day, or 1 minutes)
So, let us start with that
In 1 hour, pipe 1 fills 1/2 of the tank. So, in the first hour, the tank will not be filled
In 1 hour, pipe 2 fills 1/3 of the tank. So, in two hours we would have filled 1/2 + 1/3 of the tank, or 5/6 of the tank. So, by the end of the second hour, the tank would still not be filled.
Let us move to the third hour. In 1 hour, pipe 3 fills 1/4 of the tank. So, by the end of the third hour, we should have filled 5/6 + 1/4 = 13/12 of the tank.
Oops, one cannot fill 13/12 of a tank. What this tells us is that the tank gets filled in the 3rd hour.
When exactly during the third hour?
At the beginning of the third hour, we still have 1/6 of the tank still to fill. Pipe 3 can fill at the rate of 1/4 of the tank per hour. Or, pipe 3 will take 2/3 hours to fill the tank.
Or, the tank will be filled in 2 hours and 40 minutes.
This is an example of a sequence that is a harmonic progression. The formulae for HP are needlessly confusing. So, simple step-by-step approach works best.
There are n pipes that fill a tank. Pipe 1 can fill the tank in 2 hours, Pipe 2 in 3 hours, Pipe 3 in 4 hours and so on. Pipe 1 is kept open for 1 hour, pipe 2 for 1 hour, then pipe 3 and so on. In how many hours will the tank get filled completely?
Explanation
Almost all questions can be approached well by asking the question "What happens in 1 hour" (or 1 day, or 1 minutes)
So, let us start with that
In 1 hour, pipe 1 fills 1/2 of the tank. So, in the first hour, the tank will not be filled
In 1 hour, pipe 2 fills 1/3 of the tank. So, in two hours we would have filled 1/2 + 1/3 of the tank, or 5/6 of the tank. So, by the end of the second hour, the tank would still not be filled.
Let us move to the third hour. In 1 hour, pipe 3 fills 1/4 of the tank. So, by the end of the third hour, we should have filled 5/6 + 1/4 = 13/12 of the tank.
Oops, one cannot fill 13/12 of a tank. What this tells us is that the tank gets filled in the 3rd hour.
When exactly during the third hour?
At the beginning of the third hour, we still have 1/6 of the tank still to fill. Pipe 3 can fill at the rate of 1/4 of the tank per hour. Or, pipe 3 will take 2/3 hours to fill the tank.
Or, the tank will be filled in 2 hours and 40 minutes.
This is an example of a sequence that is a harmonic progression. The formulae for HP are needlessly confusing. So, simple step-by-step approach works best.