Windspeed and Current

Question

Flying to Houston with a tailwind a plane averaged 107 mph. On the return trip the plane only averaged 85 mph while flying back into the same wind. Find the speed of the plane in still air and the speed of the wind

Windspeed: _______ mph

Current: ________ mph

Answer 1

To answer an algebra word problem, start by defining the variables. To do that, ask "what are the unknowns I'm asked to find?" In this case they are plane speed and wind speed.

Let x represent the speed of the plane

Let y represent the speed of the wind

Next we since we have two unknowns we also need to write two equations. In this case one equation for Flying to Huston and the other for the return.

Flying to Huston with a tail wind means the wind is adding to the planes speed so:

x+y=107

On the return flight the plane is going into the wind so it subtracts from the speed

x-y=85

From here you should have several strategies to solve this system of equations. Notice it's set up nicely for elimination.