SOLUTION: Please help! A plane carries enough fuel for 10 hours of flight at an airspeed of 150 miles per hour. How far can it fly into a 30 mph headwind and still have enough fuel to retu

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Question 162056: Please help!
A plane carries enough fuel for 10 hours of flight at an airspeed of 150 miles per hour. How far can it fly into a 30 mph headwind and still have enough fuel to return to its starting point? (This distance is called the point of no return.)

Answer by ankor@dixie-net.com(22740) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
A plane carries enough fuel for 10 hours of flight at an airspeed of 150 miles per hour. How far can it fly into a 30 mph headwind and still have enough fuel to return to its starting point? (This distance is called the point of no return.)
:
This assumes that the return will be going with the wind
:
Let d = distance into the wind
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Speed against the wind: 150 - 30 = 120 mph
Speed with the wind: 150 + 30 = 180 mph
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Write a time equation: Time = dist%2Fspeed
:
Time into the wind + time with the wind = 10 hrs
d%2F120 + d%2F180 = 10
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Multiply equation by 360 to get rid of the denominators:
360*d%2F120 + 360*d%2F180 = 360(10)
Cancel denominators
3d + 2d = 3600
d = 3600%2F5
d = 720 mi to the point of no return
:
:
Check solution by find the times
720/120 = 6 hr
720/180 = 4 hr
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endurance 10 hrs