SOLUTION: You travel from San Francisco to New York City (NYC) by air, a distance of about 4,950 kilometers. On your way to NYC it took 5.5 hours because of the headwind and on your way back

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Question 1120576: You travel from San Francisco to New York City (NYC) by air, a distance of about 4,950 kilometers. On your way to NYC it took 5.5 hours because of the headwind and on your way back to San Francisco it took 5 hours because of the tailwind. What is the speed of the plane and what is the speed of the wind?
Note: Assume that x is the speed of the plane and y is the speed of the wind.

Answer by ikleyn(52787)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.
 = 990 = x + y    (1)   is the effective speed with  the wind.

 = 900 = x - y    (2)   is the effective speed against the wind.


Add the equations (1) and (2) to get


2x = 990 + 900 = 1890  ====>   x = 1890/2 = 945.


Then  y = 990 - x = 990 - 945 = 45.


Answer.  The plane speed is 945 kilometers per hour and the wind speed is 45 kilometers per hour.

It is a typical "tailwind and headwind" word problem.

See the lessons
    - Wind and Current problems
    - Wind and Current problems solvable by quadratic equations
    - Selected problems from the archive on a plane flying with and against the wind
in this site, where you will find other similar solved problems with detailed explanations.


Also,  you have this free of charge online textbook in ALGEBRA-I in this site
    ALGEBRA-I - YOUR ONLINE TEXTBOOK.

The referred lessons are the part of this textbook under the section "Word problems",  the topic "Travel and Distance problems".


Save the link to this online textbook together with its description

Free of charge online textbook in ALGEBRA-I
https://www.algebra.com/algebra/homework/quadratic/lessons/ALGEBRA-I-YOUR-ONLINE-TEXTBOOK.lesson

to your archive and use it when it is needed.



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