Question 527439: John flies from Atlant,Georgia to San Francisco,California.It takes 5.6 hours to travel 2100 miles against the head wind.At the same time, Debby flies from San Francisco to Atlanta.Her plane travels with the same average airspeed,but with a tail wind,and her flight takes only 4.8 hours.Write a system of equations that relates time,airspeed, and wind speed to distance for each traveler.solve the system to find the airspeed
Answer by mathstutor494(120)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Let
P = plane speed
T = Tail wind speed
When travelling from Atlant,Georgia to San Francisco,California,it takes 5.6 hours to cover distance which is more than return leg meaning tail wind is acting in opposite direction.
Therefore effective speed = P-T
So 5.6= 2100/(P-T)....................................(1)
Further, travel from San Francisco to Atlanta takes less time so effective speed is P+T
So 4.8 = 2100/(P+T)....................................(2)
Solving eq 1 & 2 results in
P = 406.25 mph and T = 31.25 mph
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