The white car is turning into the road on the left. In this case, you are permitted to pass on the right.
There are three fundamental rules for overtaking:
You are not allowed to overtake, since you will have to cross the center line when the visibility is limited.
The white car made an illegal overtake (solid line). You have obligations in this situation. You may not increase your speed or do anything to obstruct the passing car.
The time gained from an overtaking is often minimal. This makes many overtakes unnecessary in relation to the risks. The time gain per 10 km can generally be said to be:
Do I have to be able to do calculations like the one below on the actual theory test?
– Most likely not. The difference between the alternative answers is often great enough for you to make an estimation like the one above, i.e. that you will gain 1 minute/10 km at speeds under 90 km/h and 30 seconds/10 km at speeds over 90 km/h.
If you are driving at 100 km/h and increase your speed to 110 km/h, how much time do you gain per 10 km?
Colour codes for the figures (easier to keep track of them) | |
Original speed | 100 km/h |
New speed | 110 km/h |
Minutes per hour (since the speed is km/h, kilometres per hour) | 60 min |
Number of kilometres | 10 km |
We first calculate how many minutes it takes to travel 1 km at both speeds:
It therefore takes slightly less time with the higher speed. The difference is:
However, the question is how much time you gain per 10 km, not per km. Therefore, recalculate the time gain per 10 km:
Now it is done. It is however easier to understand if the answer is recalculated to seconds:
Colour codes for the figures (easier to keep track of them) | |
Original speed | 100 km/h |
New speed | 110 km/h |
Distance | 10 km = 10,000 metres |
Fixed conversion rate km/h to m/s | 3.6 times |
Formula for calculation of time:
For the formula to work requires us to use metres instead of 10 km and metres per second (m/s) instead of kilometres an hour (km/h). The speeds are therefore recalculated to m/s:
Only now can we use the formula Distance / speed = time:
We can then work out the time difference between both speeds:
Last updated 2022-02-25.