Boats and Streams: A Rowing Boat, a Swimmer, and a Second Boat Quiz — 5 Free Questions

📖 Read the passage, then answer the questions below

A rowing boat's speed in still water is 15 km/h, and a river's current flows at 3 km/h. The boat is used to travel between two riverside points, Ghat A and Ghat B, located 72 km apart along the river, first downstream from A to B and then back upstream from B to A.

Separately, a swimmer whose speed in still water is 4 km/h wants to cross a canal that flows at 1 km/h, swimming a distance of 15 km directly downstream, and then swimming back the same 15 km upstream to the starting point.

The rowing boat's owner is also considering a second boat for the same river, whose speed in still water is not directly known, but which is known to cover the same 72 km distance between Ghat A and Ghat B travelling upstream in exactly 12 hours.

Question 1

What is the difference between the first boat's upstream speed and the second boat's upstream speed?

Question 2

What is the ratio of the swimmer's speed in still water to the canal's current speed?

Question 3

How long does the swimmer take to swim back 15 km upstream?

Question 4

What is the second boat's downstream speed?

Question 5

What is the average speed of the swimmer for the complete round trip?

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About Boats and Streams: A Rowing Boat, a Swimmer, and a Second Boat

CLAT's Quantitative Techniques section pairs a short data-rich scenario with several straightforward numeric questions -- here, boats and streams applied to a single invented river crossing, so every answer can be worked out from the figures given, without any outside knowledge.

This quiz is built around three journeys on the same river: a rowing boat's round trip, a swimmer's round trip across a canal, and a second boat whose still-water speed must be worked out from its upstream time, fully worked out up front. Every question below is answered using those same figures -- nothing new is introduced question to question.

The twenty-four questions move through the kind of angles CLAT actually tests: downstream and upstream speeds, individual leg times, round-trip totals and average speeds, ratios and differences between the boats and the swimmer, and a multi-statement combination question.

Only five of the twenty-four questions are shown on any single attempt, so replaying this quiz brings a genuinely different mix of angles on the same river rather than the same five memorised by rote.