Question 70302
  John flies from atlanta, GA to San Fransisco, CA. It takes 5.6 hours to travel 2100 miles against the wind. At the same time, debbie flies from San Fransisco to Atlanta. Her plane travels with the same average airspeed but, with the tailwind, her flight takes only 4.8 hours. 
A). Write a system of equations that time, air speed, and wind speed to distance for each traveler.
John DATA:
distance = 2100 mi ; time = 5.6 hrs ; rate = d/t = 2100/5.6 = 375 mph
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Debbie DATA:
distance = 2100 mi ; time = 4.8 hrs ; rate = d/t = 2100/4.8 = 437.5 mph
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EQUATIONS: 
Let air speed be a and wind speed be w; then:
a+w=437.5 mph
a-w=375   mph
 
B). Solve the system to find the air speed.
Add the two equation to get:
2a = 812.5
air speed = 406.25 mph
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C). Find the wind speed.
Subtract the two equations to get:
2w=62.5
wind speed = 31.25 mph 
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Cheers,
Stan H.