Problema Solution
Two airplanes leave at the same time from airports that are 880 miles apart and travel toward each other. If one plane travels 126 mph faster than the other and they pass each other in 2 hours. how fast is each plane traveling?
Answer provided by our tutors
distance = speed * time
time = distance/speed
let 'v' represent the speed of the slower plane, then 'v+126' represents the speed of the faster plane
let 'x' represent the distance flown by the slower plane, then '880-x' represents the speed of the slower plane
their time equations look like this:
2 = x/v, so x=2v
2 = (880-x)/(v+126)
substituting in '2v' for 'x' in the second equation:
2 = (880-2v)/(v+126)
solving for 'v' we have v=157
157 + 126 = 283
the slower plane is flying at 157mph, the faster plane is flying at 283mph