SOLUTION: A light plane flew from its home base to an airport 255 miles away. With a headwind, the trip took 1.7 hours. The return trip with tailwind took 1.5 hours. Fine the average airspee

Question 119180: A light plane flew from its home base to an airport 255 miles away. With a headwind, the trip took 1.7 hours. The return trip with tailwind took 1.5 hours. Fine the average airspeed of the plane and the average wind speed.
Found 2 solutions by checkley71, josmiceli:
Answer by checkley71(8403) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
255/1.7=150 MPH FOR THE SPEED WITH A HEAD WIND.
255/1.5=170 MPH FOR THE TRIP WITH THE WIND.
THE DIFFERENCE IN SPEEDS DIVIDED BY 2 GIVES US THE WIND SPEED.
(170-150)/2=20/2=10 MPH FOR THE WIND SPEED.
170-10=160 FOR THE PLANE SPEED.
150+10=160
Answer by josmiceli(19441) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
What is common to both trips? That's always the right question to ask.
The answer is -distance-It's 255 mi in both cases. The speed will be
different and so will the time.
s = plane's average speed in still air
w = average windspeed
On the first trip,
On the 2nd trip,

Multiply both sides of the 2nd equation by the fraction

add the equations

multiply both sides by 1.5

mi/hr average airspeed of plane

mi/hr ave windspeed
check answers

and

OK
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