Question

Marcia flew her ultralight plane to a nearby town against a head wind of 15 km/h in 2h 20 min. the return trip under the same wind conditions took 1h 24min. find the plane's air speed and the distance to the nearby town

Answer 1

Let the distance between the towns be d and the speed of the air be s.

distance = speed * time

convert the minutes time into hours.

When flying into the wind, ground speed will be air speed MINUS wind speed, hence the against the wind trip is described by:

d

s−15

=

7

3

return trip is then :

d

s+15

=

7

5

Cross-multiplying both we get the two-variable system:

3d=7∗(s−15)5d=7∗(s+15)

3d=7s−1055d=7s+105

subtract first equation from second equation we get

2d=210d=105km

Substitute the value of d in the above equations for s.

5∗105=7s+1057s=420s=60km/hr

Answer 2

The answer to this question would be 60km per hour