Problema Solution
An airplane can travel 470 mph in still air. If it travels 3549 miles with the wind in the same length of time it travels 3031 miles against the wind, what is the speed of the wind?
Answer provided by our tutors
let 'w' represent the speed of the wind in mph, then '470-w' represents the speed against the wind and '470+w' represents the speed with the wind
distance = speed * time
time = distance/speed
the time is the same, so we set the 'distance/speed' expressions equal to each other:
3549/(470+w) = 3031/(470-w)
solving for 'w' we have w=37
the speed of the wind is 37 mph