SOLUTION: A man gets in his motorboat and travels upstream. 1 mile up the river, his hat flys off, but he doesn't notice for another 5 minutes. When he finally does notice, he immediately go

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Question 40450: A man gets in his motorboat and travels upstream. 1 mile up the river, his hat flys off, but he doesn't notice for another 5 minutes. When he finally does notice, he immediately goes back in persuit of it. He finally catches up to it floating by his starting point. Assuming that the boat was traveling the same speed the whole time, how fast was the river flowing?
Answer by josmiceli(19441) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
b = rate of boat
r = rate of river
There are 2 combined distances that the boat travels. Ther is the 1 mile
distance and the distance beyond 1 mile which takes the boat 5 minutes
going against the current.

b - r is the boats rate going upstream
(b - r)*5 is rate x time = distance
is the combined distance
When the boater goes back to get the hat, he will go back to his starting
point at a rate of (b + r) going with the current. His time is the
combined distances divided by his rate.

During this time, the hat floats downstream for 1 mile back to the
starting point at the rate the river is flowing.

These times are equal so,

complete the square

Try different values for b, speed of boat to get values for r