Problema Solution

A plane had been flying for 40 minutes when a change of wind direction doubled its ground speed. The entire trip of 160 miles took 2 hours. How far did the plane travel during the first 40 minutes?

Answer provided by our tutors

let 'v' represent the initial velocity, then '2v' represents the final velocity


distance = velocity * time


40/60 is time represented in hours


the distance flown before the wind change:

(40/60)v


the distance flown after the wind change (velocity of 2v, time 40:

(2 - (40/60))(2v)


the total distance is then represented by:

160 = (40/60)v + (2-(40/60))(2v)

solving for 'v' we have:

v=48


The plane flew 40 minutes at 48 mph, so the distance was:

48 miles/hour * (40/60) hours = 32 miles


The plane flew 32 miles before the speed doubled