SOLUTION: A harried parent leaves his house during rush-hour each weekday to fetch his wife at the railroad station and return to pick up his child from school. His house, station and scho

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Question 943978: A harried parent leaves his house during rush-hour each weekday to fetch his
wife at the railroad station and return to pick up his child from school. His
house, station and school are equal distance of 1 mile from each other. (On an
imaginary triangle.) He usually makes the whole trip in 15 minutes. Because of
heavy traffic at rush-hour, he averages 10 miles/hour slower between the station
and the school. How fast is his speed between the house and the station?
Answer by josgarithmetic(39618) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The word, "return" is creating ambiguity. I will take the meaning, that the harried parent is making a circuit around the triangle.
Using all units as miles, hours, miles per hour,


_____________________rate___________time___________distance
HOUSEtoSTATION_______r-10___________________________1
STATIONtoSCHOOL______r______________________________1
SCHOOLtoHOUSE________r______________________________1
Total______________________________15%2F60



_____________________rate___________time___________distance
HOUSEtoSTATION_______r-10___________1/(r-10)_________1
STATIONtoSCHOOL______r______________1/r______________1
SCHOOLtoHOUSE________r______________1/r______________1
Total______________________________1%2F4


The question means, to find r-10.
highlight_green%281%2F%28r-10%29%2B2%2Fr=1%2F4%29, the equation formable from the data table. Solve for r, and compute r-10.