Time & Distance

About 6 min · Mathematics · English

Time worked out from the lesson's 390 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.

Time & Distance is a fundamental quantitative topic for Maharashtra Police Bharti exams. This chapter tests your ability to apply the basic relationship between speed, time, and distance to various practical scenarios—moving vehicles, trains crossing platforms, and boats navigating rivers.

Key ideas

Basic Relationship: Speed = Distance ÷ Time. This formula rearranges to Distance = Speed × Time and Time = Distance ÷ Speed.
Unit Conversion: Converting between km/hr and m/s is essential—multiply km/hr by 5/18 to get m/s, and multiply m/s by 18/5 to get km/hr.
Relative Speed (Same Direction): When two objects move in the same direction, relative speed = difference of their speeds.
Relative Speed (Opposite Direction): When two objects move toward each other, relative speed = sum of their speeds.
Train Problems: The distance covered by a train includes its own length. When crossing a platform, total distance = length of train + length of platform.

Watch out for

Forgetting train's own length → When a train crosses a stationary object (pole/person), students forget that the train must cover its entire length. Always include train length in distance.
Adding speeds for same direction → Students add speeds when objects move in the same direction. Correct fix: Subtract speeds when moving same direction, add when moving opposite.
Wrong unit conversion → Confusing 5/18 and 18/5. Remember: km/hr is a bigger number than m/s for the same speed, so multiply by the fraction that makes it smaller (5/18) when converting km/hr to m/s.

Quick reference

Speed = Distance/Time — the master formula for all problems.
km/hr to m/s: × 5/18 | m/s to km/hr: × 18/5
Opposite direction → ADD speeds | Same direction → SUBTRACT speeds
Train crossing platform = (Train length + Platform length) ÷ Speed
Boat still water speed = (Downstream + Upstream) ÷ 2

Check yourself: 3 questions

1. A train travels 120 km in 2 hours. What is its speed in metres per second?
2. A man can row 15 km downstream in 3 hours and the same distance upstream in 5 hours. What is the speed of the stream?
3. Two trains of length 150 metres and 200 metres are running in opposite directions at speeds of 54 km/h and 72 km/h respectively. In how many seconds will they cross each other?

This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 21 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.

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