SOLUTION: A boat goes 240 miles downstream in the same time it can go 160 miles upstream. The speed of the current is 5 miles per hour. What is the speed of the boat in still water?
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Question 621133: A boat goes 240 miles downstream in the same time it can go 160 miles upstream. The speed of the current is 5 miles per hour. What is the speed of the boat in still water? Answer by solver91311(24713) (Show Source):
Let mph represent the speed of the boat in still water. Then the speed downstream in a 5 mph current is mph and the speed upstream in the same 5 mph current is mph.
The time to go downstream is:
The time to go upstream
And these two times are equal, so:
Cross multiply:
Solve for
John
My calculator said it, I believe it, that settles it
