An airplane flies 1000 miles due east in 2 hours and 1000 mi

An airplane flies 1000 miles due east in 2 hours and 1000 miles due south in 3 hours. What is the average speed of the airplane?

Solution

The equation that you need to use is:
.
D = R*T
.
in which D is the total distance flown, R is the Rate or Speed, and T is the total time required
for this travel.
.
The plane flies 1000 miles on one leg plus another 1000 miles on the second leg of this flight.
Therefore, the total distance is 1000 + 1000 = 2000 miles.
.
The first leg of the flight takes 2 hours and the second leg of the flight takes 3 hours.
Therefore, the total time of flight is 2 + 3 = 5 hours.
.
Substitute the total distance (2000 miles) and the total time (5 hours) into the equation
and you get:
.
2000 = R*5
.
or in more standard form:
.
5*R = 2000
.
Solve for R by dividing both sides of this equation by 5 which is the multiplier of R to get:
.
5*R/5 = 2000/5
.
and after doing the division the equation simplifies to:
.
R = 2000/5 = 400 miles/hour
.
So the answer to this problem is that the average speed of the plane for this 5 hour flight
is 400 miles per hour.