Escalator Walk Time – Rankers Physics
Topic: Kinematics
Subtopic: Relative Motion in One Dimension

Escalator Walk Time

A person walks up a stalled escalator in 45 sec. He is carried in 60s, when standing on the same escalator which is now moving. The time he would take to walk up the moving escalator will be :
27 s
72 s
18 s
25.71 s

Solution:

Let the length of the escalator be \(L\). Speed of person is \(v_p = L/45\). Speed of escalator is \(v_e = L/60\). When both move, their effective speed is \(v_{eff} = v_p + v_e = L/45 + L/60 = (4L+3L)/180 = 7L/180\). The time taken \(T = L/v_{eff} = L / (7L/180) = 180/7 \approx 25.71\) s.

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