SOLUTION: Your fishing boat moves at 12 miles per hour relative to the surrounding water. You ride it from your house up the Mississippi River to a point that�s 16 miles distant, and then re

Question 580159: Your fishing boat moves at 12 miles per hour relative to the surrounding water. You ride it from your house up the Mississippi River to a point that�s 16 miles distant, and then return to your house. The round trip takes 4 hours. The speed of the river is
Answer by ankor@dixie-net.com(22740) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Your fishing boat moves at 12 miles per hour relative to the surrounding water.
You ride it from your house up the Mississippi River to a point that�s 16 miles distant, and then return to your house.
The round trip takes 4 hours. The speed of the river is
:
Let c = the speed of the river
then
(12-c) = effective speed up-river
and
(12+c) = effective speed down river
:
write a time equation; time = dist/speed
:
Upriver time + downriver time = 4 hrs
+ = 4
;
multiply by (12-c)(12+c), gets rid of the denominators and we have:
16(12+c) + 16(12-c) = 4(12+c)(12-c)
;
192 + 16c + 192 - 16c = 4(144-c^2)
:
384 = 576 - 4c^2
:
4c^2 = 576 - 384
4c^2 = 192
c^2 = 192/4
c^2 = 48
c =
c = 6.9282 ~ 6.9 mph is the speed of the river
:
:
See if that checks out
+
3.137 + .847 = 3.984 ~ 4 hrs
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