Question

A tugboat goes 72 miles upstream in 9 hours. The return trip downstream takes 4 hours. Find the speed of the tugboat without a current and find the speed of the current.

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

72÷9= 8, so the boat was only doing 8mph going upstream (against the current) the return trip downstream only took 4 hours. 72÷18=4 meaning the boat was traveling at 18mph downstream (no current) there is a 10mph difference between upstream and downstream therefore the current had to be running at 10 mph. so the speed of the tug boat is 8mph without a current and the current is running at 10mph.