The Mail Plane

A motorcyclist was sent by the post office to meet a plane at the airport.

The plane landed ahead of schedule, and its mail was taken toward the post office by horse. After half an hour the horseman met the motorcyclist on the road and gave him the mail.

The motorcyclist returned to the post office 20 minutes earlier than he was expected.

How many minutes early did the plane land?

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The motorcyclist would have taken 20 minutes to go from where he met the horseman to the airport and back. Thus he was 10 minutes from the airport when he met the horseman. These 10 minutes plus the 30 minutes the horseman had been riding before they met make 40 minutes the plane was ahead of schedule. From B.A. Kordemsky, The Moscow Puzzles, 1956.

November 19, 2009January 22, 2013 | Puzzles