An airplane can fly downwind a distance of 600 miles in 2 ho

An airplane can fly downwind a distance of 600 miles in 2 hours. The return trip against the same wind takes 3 hours. Find the speed of the wind.

Solution

Let w = the speed of the wind Let a = what the speed of the airplane would be if there were no wind Then going, flying with the wind, the wind makes the plane go faster, so we add the speed of the wind to what the speed of the plane would be if there were no wind. Therefore, The actual speed going with the wind = a + w Now we use DISTANCE GOING = SPEED GOING