Question 798488: I have math dyslexia and for reason i CANNOT grasp the following problem. Please explain it to in some weird abstract way that makes sense to me...i beg of you! I am losing my mind over this seemingly simple task...
A jet takes hours to travel a distance of against a jetstream. The return trip takes hours with the jetstream. What is the rate of the jet in still air and what is the rate of the jetstream?
Answer by josgarithmetic(39618)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! Your problem description is incomplete. Give some numeric information about the time needed with the jetstream and against the jetstream. These should be KNOWN values. Is the distance traveled in one direction known or unknown?
Once you understand what is known and what is unknown, you would use the simple fact, {rate}*{time}={distance}.
If you have some known speed r of the jet in still air, and some jetstream speed, c, then the jet traveling in the direction of the jetstream has a speed of  ; and the jet traveling in the opposite direction of the jetstream has a rate of  .
TELL THE PARTS THAT ARE MISSING AND POST THE COMPLETE PROBLEM DESCRIPTION AND QUESTION AGAIN.
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Second Attempt, After Read Student's Private Message
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The question is a beginning-algebra question. Regardless of any discalculia, some skill using variable numbers is expected. I will not "make up" numbers for your exercise question, but I will try to include needed numbers as variables, and begin to analyze and show some work with them.
!-----Rewriting the question, adjusted-----!:
A jet takes u hours to travel a distance of d against a jetstream. The return trip takes v hours with the jetstream. What is the rate of the jet in still air and what is the rate of the jetstream?
Let r = rate of the jet in still air, no jetstream.
Let c = rate or speed of the jetstream.
The jet made a round trip of  , whatever the distance units, likely miles or kilometers. Each way, one way, is distance, d.
The jet's rate when traveling WITH the jetstream is .
The jet's rate when traveling AGAINST the jetstream is .
You must understand which of these is greater, and why!
Read the question part. This question asks for r and c. These are the unknown variables. We may expect that d, u, and v are KNOWN.
We understand r*t=d, where t is time, r is rate, and d is distance. That is just in general. Let us not confuse those variables too much with the variables in our exercise and solution analysis.
HOW VS. STREAM___________speed___________time______________distance
AGAINST__________________r-c_____________u_________________(r-c)u
WITH_____________________r+c_____________v_________________(r+c)v
Examine the chart or table very carefully.
Reminder, we KNOW the distance d, and we have TWO expressions for this distance. This means we have TWO equations. We also have TWO unknown variables.
The distance expressions shown in the table allow us to make these two simultaneous equations:
Solve this system for r and c.
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