The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) operates…
The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) operates ten “checkpoints” for screening departing passengers at the Atlanta International Airport. Each checkpoint consists of a baggage conveyor belt, a CTX scanning/imaging machine, and a walk-through metal detector for passengers. However, not all ten checkpoints are necessarily operational all the time. This is because each checkpoint requires a team of three TSA employees to staff it, and there is not always a need to have ten checkpoints running simultaneously. Passengers arriving at the airport are first greeted by a “greeter” who directs each passenger to a specific checkpoint in operation. Once “greeted,” each passenger joins the single line at their assigned checkpoint for screening, and it takes an average of 2 minutes to process each passenger. The greeter’s job is to evenly divide arriving passengers between the checkpoints in operation, although the rate at which passengers arrive at the airport and approach the greeter varies with the time of day. Currently, the number of checkpoints that the TSA operates during the 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. time intervals of the day is described in the table below. (Do not round intermediate calculations. Round your answers to four decimal places.) Period Average Number of Passengers Arriving per Hour Number of Checkpoints 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM 200 10 What is the average time (minutes) a passenger spends in line waiting for service at each checkpoint?
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