SOLUTION: An airplane travels 1200 miles in 4 hours with the wind. The return trip against the wind takes 5 hours. What is the wind speed and the speed of the airplane in still air?

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Question 1113103: An airplane travels 1200 miles in 4 hours with the wind. The return trip against the wind takes 5 hours. What is the wind speed and the speed of the airplane in still air?
Found 2 solutions by ikleyn, Alan3354:
Answer by ikleyn(52800)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.
The speed with the wind was

 = 300 miles per hour.


It is the sum of the plane speed at no wind  "u"  and speed of the wind  "v":

u + v = 300.    (1)



The speed against the wind was

 = 240 miles per hour.


It is the difference of the plane speed at no wind  "u"  and speed of the wind  "v":

u - v = 240.    (2)


Now add equations (1) and (2). You will get

2u = 300 + 240 = 540,   which implies  u =  = 270 mph.



Now substitute it into eq(1) to get

v = 300 - 270 = 30.


Answer.  The plain speed at no wind is 270 mph;  the wind speed is 30 mph.

Solved.

---------------
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.


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.



Answer by Alan3354(69443)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
An airplane travels 1200 miles in 4 hours with the wind. The return trip against the wind takes 5 hours. What is the wind speed and the speed of the airplane in still air?
-----------
Find the 2 groundspeeds, upwind and downwind.
The plane's airspeed is the average of the 2.
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Windspeed = the difference between airspeed and groundspeed.

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