SOLUTION: A reconnaissance plane flies 514 km away from its base at 596 m/s, then flies back to its base at 894 m/s. What is its average speed? Answer in units of m/s.

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Question 1123815: A reconnaissance plane flies 514 km away from
its base at 596 m/s, then flies back to its base
at 894 m/s.
What is its average speed?
Answer in units of m/s.
Found 2 solutions by josgarithmetic, ikleyn:
Answer by josgarithmetic(39614) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
In case you still want this as meters per second, m/s,

1028000%2F%28514000%2F596%2B514000%2F894%29

Simplify and compute.

Answer by ikleyn(52756) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.
Total two-ways distance is 2*514 kilometers = 1028 kilometers = 1028000 meters.


Total time = 514000%2F596 + 514000%2F895 seconds.


Average speed = total_two_ways_distance%2Ftotal_time = 1028000%2F%28514000%2F596%2B514000%2F894%29 = 2%2F%281%2F596%2B1%2F894%29 = %282%2A596%2A894%29%2F%28894%2B596%29 = 715.2 m/s

Solved.

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Two lessons to learn from this solution : 

    1.  From the solution, learn the method of calculating average speed.


    2.  In this problem (as in other two-ways problems) the average speed does not depend on a one-way distance. 


        The average speed = %282%2AV%5B1%5D%2AV%5B2%5D%29%2F%28V%5B1%5D%2BV%5B2%5D%29.


For other similar problems, see the lessons
    - Calculating an average speed: a train going from A to B and back
    - One more problem on calculating an average speed
in this site.