A light plane flew from its home base to an airport 255 miles away. With a head wind, the trip took 1.7 hours. The return trip with a tail wind took 1.5 hours. Find the average airspeed of the plane and the average windspeed
The speed from home base to airport was: [tex]v=255miles/1.7h\ /:1.7\\v=150mph[/tex] The speed from airport to home base was: [tex]v=255miles/1.5h\ /:1.5\\v=170mph[/tex] Average speed of plane was: [tex]\frac{170mph+150mph}{2}=160mph[/tex] Average speed of wind was: [tex]x\ -\ wind\ speed\ (mph)\\150+x=170-x\ /+x\\150+2x=170\ /-150\\2x=20\ /:2\\x=10[/tex] Answer: Average speed of plane was 160mph and average speed of wind was 10mph.
