If I am traveling 10 miles per hour to the north and the wind is coming from the south at 8 miles an hour what is my effective wind speed

Question

If I am riding my bicycle at 10 miles per hour heading north and the wind speed is 8 miles an hour coming from the south what is my effective headwind speed

Answer 1

Hey Mark,

 

    Whenever I try to answer a word problem, I like to make the language in it as simple as possible before proceeding.  "wind is coming from the south at 8 mi/h" is a fancy way of saying "the wind is blowing north at 8 mi/h".  Now, imagine your bicycle could fly into the air.  You're already putting enough power into it to travel at 10 miles per hour, but now the wind is pushing you to.  Add the power of the wind to yours and what speed would you travel at?