a car traveled the first quarter of a certain distance at 4 times the speed it traveled the remaining distance . what proportion of the total time traveled , was the time taken to travel the first quarter of the distance ? Options.
A) 1 / 4	B) 1 / 5	C) 1 / 6	D) 1 / 7	E) 1 / 13

Rationale: these problems can be solved through algebra or sly number picking . being a big fan of solving problems with numbers , let ' s pick a total distance divisible by 4 ( say 40 ) so we can break it up into quarters , and a speed that can easily be one fourth , say 10 . each quarter is thus 10 kilometers ( or miles or feet or angstroms for all it matters ) , and the runner ' s speed is 10 km / h for the first quarter and 5 / 2 km / h for the remaining quarters . he ' ll take 1 hour to do the first quarter and then 4 hours for the second quarter , 4 hours for the third and 4 hours for the fourth . on total he will take 13 hours to complete this race , of which 1 hour was spent on the first quarter . so 1 / 13 . answer e .
Answer: E