SOLUTION: A reconnaissance plane flies 514 km away from its base at 596 m/s, then flies back to its base at 894 m/s. What is its average speed? Answer in units of m/s.

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Question 1123815: A reconnaissance plane flies 514 km away from
its base at 596 m/s, then flies back to its base
at 894 m/s.
What is its average speed?
Answer in units of m/s.
Found 2 solutions by josgarithmetic, ikleyn:
Answer by josgarithmetic(39614)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
In case you still want this as meters per second, m/s,



Simplify and compute.
Answer by ikleyn(52756)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.
Total two-ways distance is 2*514 kilometers = 1028 kilometers = 1028000 meters.


Total time =  +  seconds.


Average speed =  =  =  =  = 715.2 m/s

Solved.

-------------------

Two lessons to learn from this solution : 

    1.  From the solution, learn the method of calculating average speed.


    2.  In this problem (as in other two-ways problems) the average speed does not depend on a one-way distance. 


        The average speed = .


For other similar problems, see the lessons
    - Calculating an average speed: a train going from A to B and back
    - One more problem on calculating an average speed
in this site.


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