AMC8 2016 8, Problem 14

Karl's car uses a gallon of gas every $35$ miles, and his gas tank holds $14$ gallons when it is full. One day, Karl started with a full tank of gas, drove $350$ miles, bought $8$ gallons of gas, and continued driving to his destination. When he arrived, his gas tank was half full. How many miles did Karl drive that day?

Solution: Since he uses a gallon of gas every $35$ miles, he had used $\frac{350}{35} = 10$ gallons after $350$ miles. Therefore, after the first leg of his trip he had $14 - 10 = 4$ gallons of gas left. Then, he bought $8$ gallons of gas, which brought him up to $12$ gallons of gas in his gas tank. When he arrived, he had $\frac{1}{2} \cdot 14 = 7$ gallons of gas. So he used $5$ gallons of gas on the second leg of his trip. Therefore,                                               the second part of his trip covered $5 \cdot 35 = 175$ miles. Adding this to the $350$ miles, we see that he drove $350 + 175 = \fbox{525}$ miles.

Answer: 525