An executive flew in a jet to a meeting in a city 1500 kilom

An executive flew in a jet to a meeting in a city 1500 kilometers away.Ater traveling the same amount of time on the return flight, the pilot mentioned that they still had 300 kilometers to go.The air speed of the plane was 600 kilometers per hour.How fast was the wind blowing?(Assume that the wind direction was parallel to the flight path and constant all day.)

Solution

Let the speed of the wind be \"w\"
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Outgoing flight DATA:
distance = 1500 km ; rate = (600+w) km ; time = d/r = 1500/(600+w) hrs
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Return flight DATA:
distance = 1200 km ; rate = (600-w) km ; time = d/r = 1200/(600-w) hrs
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EQUATION:
time out = time back
1500/(600+w) = 1200/(600-w)
Divide both sides by 300 to get:
5/(600+w) = 3/(600-w)
Cross-multiply:
5(600-w) = 3(600+w)
3000-5w = 1800+3w
8w = 1200
w = 150 km/hr (wind speed is 150 km/hr)