Question

In order to be certified court reporter, he/she should have a typing speed of at least 3.75 words per second. Suppose a trial transcript contains 25 pages with an average of 675 words per page. Assuming the court reporter typed the transcript at the minimum rate, how long was she actively typing?
(a) 1hour, 15minutes
(b) 1hour, 45minutes
(c) 1hour, 30minutes
(d) 3hours

Answer 1

Hint: First, we have to find words type in one minute by court report using the conversion $\text{60second=1min}$ . From this, we will get words in one minute. Then we have to find total words for 25 pages to be typed. So, for this we will $\left( 25\cdot 675 \right)$ . After this we will use the formula $time=\dfrac{\text{total words }}{\text{ words in 1min}}$ to get the answer.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Here, we are given a typing speed which is equal to 3.75 per second. There are a total of 25 pages of transcript which is to be typed having an average of 625 words per page, so, we have to find the time taken by the reporter to type. So, we get as
$speed=3.75$ per second
So, we will convert it to one minute by using the conversion $1\min =60\text{second}$ or written as $\text{60second=1min}$
So, using unitary method, we get
$\begin{align}
  & \text{1second}=3.75words \\
 & 60\text{second=?} \\
\end{align}$
$\therefore 3.75\times 60=225$words …………………….(1)
So, in 1 minute 225 words can be typed.
Now, we have average words per page $=675$. So, we will find average words of a total 25 pages using a unitary method. We get
$\begin{align}
  & 1page=675words \\
 & 25page=? \\
\end{align}$
On solving, we get
$\therefore 25\times 675=16875words$ ……………………(2)
So, there are a total 16875 words in 25 pages.
Now, we have both equations in terms of words. So, using the formula
$time=\dfrac{\text{total words }}{\text{ words in 1min}}$
So, substituting the values in the above equation, we get
$time=\dfrac{16875}{225}=75$ minutes.
So, 75 minutes is equal to 60minutes + 15minutes. We know that 60minutes is 1 hour.
So, the time taken by the court reporter to type 25 pages will be 1hour 15minutes.
Hence, option (a) is correct.

Note: Be careful while finding the time required for typing. Don’t use inverse formula of this $time=\dfrac{\text{total words }}{\text{ words in 1min}}$ i.e. $time=\dfrac{\text{ words in 1min }}{\text{total words}}$ . Otherwise, time will be in decimal form and students will not get proper answers to this. Also, do not take 625 words instead of 675 words in a hurry otherwise answer you will get will be $25\times 625=15625words$.Further using the formula and solving, we will get
$time=\dfrac{\text{total words }}{\text{ words in 1min}}=\dfrac{15625}{225}=69.44$ minutes
So, students will take approx. 70 minute and will get option (a). Sometimes, it might get wrong. So, do not solve it that way.