SOLUTION: At 10 a.m., two campers left their campsite by canoe and paddled downstream at an average speed of 12 mph. They then turned around and paddled back upstream at an average rate of 4

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Question 190401: At 10 a.m., two campers left their campsite by canoe and paddled downstream at an average speed of 12 mph. They then turned around and paddled back upstream at an average rate of 4 mph. The total trip took 1 h. At what time did the campers turn around downstream?
Thanks.
Answer by solver91311(24713) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!


Use distance equals rate times time



Let t be the time in hours they spent paddling downstream. Then the time spent paddling upstream must have been 1 - t because the whole trip took 1 hour.

The downstream trip is then described by:



And the upstream trip is described by:



But the distance was the same both ways (unless some clown moved their campsite while they were gone, in which case you wouldn't be able to solve the problem) so:



Solve for t and you have the amount of time the downstream trip took, in hours. Convert that to minutes and add it to 10 AM to get the answer to the question.

John