Problema Solution
During the first part of a trip, a canoeist travels 70 miles at a certain speed. The canoeist travels 6 miles on the second part of the trip at a speed 5 mph slower. The total time for the trip is 3 hours. What was the speed on each part of the trip?
Answer provided by our tutors
let
d1 = 70 mi the distance of the first part
v = the speed on the first part, v>0
d2 = 6 min the distance of the second part
v - 5 = the speed on the second part, v-5>0 or v>5
since speed = distance/time we have time = distance/speed
we know the total time is 3 hour thus we have:
d1/v + d2/(v - 5) = 3
70/v + 6/(v - 5) = 3
by solving we find:
v = 25.81 mph the speed on the first part of the trip
click here to see the step by step solution of the equation:
v - 5 = 25.81 - 5 = 20.81 mph the speed on the second part of the trip