SOLUTION: An airplane flies 1000 miles due east in 2 hours and 1000 miles due south in 3 hours. What is the average speed of the airplane?

Question 100258: An airplane flies 1000 miles due east in 2 hours and 1000 miles due south in 3 hours. What is the average speed of the airplane?
Answer by bucky(2189) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The equation that you need to use is:
.
D = R*T
.
in which D is the total distance flown, R is the Rate or Speed, and T is the total time required
for this travel.
.
The plane flies 1000 miles on one leg plus another 1000 miles on the second leg of this flight.
Therefore, the total distance is 1000 + 1000 = 2000 miles.
.
The first leg of the flight takes 2 hours and the second leg of the flight takes 3 hours.
Therefore, the total time of flight is 2 + 3 = 5 hours.
.
Substitute the total distance (2000 miles) and the total time (5 hours) into the equation
and you get:
.
2000 = R*5
.
or in more standard form:
.
5*R = 2000
.
Solve for R by dividing both sides of this equation by 5 which is the multiplier of R to get:
.
5*R/5 = 2000/5
.
and after doing the division the equation simplifies to:
.
R = 2000/5 = 400 miles/hour
.
So the answer to this problem is that the average speed of the plane for this 5 hour flight
is 400 miles per hour.
.
Hope this helps you to understand the problem a little better.
.

RELATED QUESTIONS
ok i am in Algebra A and i am doing weighted averages. here is the problem: An Airplane... (answered by checkley71)

An airplane flies 1,000 due east in 2 hours and 1,000 due south in 3 hours. What is the... (answered by edjones)

Two airplanes depart simultaneously from an airport. One flies due south; the other... (answered by ankor@dixie-net.com)

A boat travels 16 miles due north in 2 hours and 24 miles due west in 2 hours what is the (answered by addingup)

An airplane flies 750 miles due west in 1.5 hours and 750 miles due south in 2 hours.... (answered by solver91311,josmiceli)

An airplane flies 1440 miles in 2 2/3 hours. What is its average speed in miles per hour (answered by Alan3354)

Leah flies 5,200 miles in 11 hours. What is the average speed of her... (answered by math_helper)

If an airplane flies 1883 miles in 38 hours, what is the average speed in miles per hour. (answered by macston,jim_thompson5910)

An airplane flies 1000 miles in two hours. The return flight against the wind took 2.5... (answered by addingup)