SOLUTION: During the 1st part of a trip, a bicyclist travels 51 miles at a certain speed. The return trip is made at a speed that is 6 mph slower. Total time for the round trip is 15 hrs. Fi

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Question 864631: During the 1st part of a trip, a bicyclist travels 51 miles at a certain speed. The return trip is made at a speed that is 6 mph slower. Total time for the round trip is 15 hrs. Find the bicyclist's average speed on the 1st part of the trip and the return trip.
(Instructions are as follows: "Simplify your answer. Type an integer or a decimal. Round to the nearest hundredth as needed")
Answer by josgarithmetic(39620) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Use basic uniform rates concept, RT=D, and setup a data table to help relate all the data.

_________________speed__________time__________distance
FirstPart________r______________51%2Fr_____________51
Return___________r-6____________51%2F%28r-6%29_________51
TOTAL____________________________15

Solve for r in the equation for time sum, highlight_green%2851%2Fr%2B51%2F%28r-6%29=15%29.
This will be simpler as highlight_green%2817%2Fr%2B17%2F%28r-6%29=5%29.