SOLUTION: A barge travels 63 miles upriver and 63 miles downriver in a toal time of 15 hours. the speed of the current is 4 mph. Find the speed of the barge in still water.

Question 290001: A barge travels 63 miles upriver and 63 miles downriver in a toal time of 15 hours. the speed of the current is 4 mph. Find the speed of the barge in still water.
Answer by Fombitz(32388) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Rate*Time=Distance
Let's call the speed of the barge S.
Against the current,
1.
With the current,
2.
and we also know

From eq. 1 and 2,

Then,

You can factor this equation.

Two solutions,

.
.
.

Since we specified the direction of with and against the current, we assumed the barge speed was positive, so we only keep the positive result.

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