Question

During the first part of a trip, a canoeist travels 80 miles at a certain speed. The canoeist travels 17 miles on the second part of the trip at a speed 5 mph slower. The total time for the trip is 2 hours. What is the speed on the first and second part of the trip? (type an integer or a decimal. Round to the nearest hundredth)

Answer 1

distance/speed = time

First part of the trip: Distance is x and speed is 80: x/80

Second part of the trip: Distance is 17 and speed is (x-5): 17/(x-5)

(x/80)+(17/(x-5))=2

Answer 2

the mph for the first and second trip is how much b/c I see 17 but got lost

Answer 3

What do you mean?

Answer 4

your saying the MPH for part 1 is 80 & part 2 is 17?

Answer 5

that is distance not speed

Answer 6

his equation is correct except its 80/x for the first part

Answer 7

right I am trying to figure the speed in mph

Answer 8

solve for x

Answer 9

Nope, distance/speed = time. Distance is on top and speed is on bottom.

17 is the distance on the second part.

Ah yeah, had a typo on my equation, sorry.

Answer 10

(80/x)+(17/(x-5))=2

Answer 11

grr

Answer 12

(x/80)+(17/(x-5))=2 is correct

Answer 13

gah, no it's not, hahaha

Answer 14

(80/x)+(17/(x-5))=2

Answer 15

so the first part is 2?

Answer 16

first part is x and second speed is x-5

Answer 17

you have to solve equation to get values

Answer 18

the first part for the speed mph being x makes no sense to me sorry

Answer 19

Solve the whole equation altogether.

Answer 20

No problem, what about that makes it sound weird to you?

Answer 21

because it is a letter & not a number

Answer 22

if t represents the time it takes to complete the first part of the trip then the speed of the of the first part of the trip is 80/t. The speed of the second part of the trip is 17/2+t, which equals 80/t -5. Solve for t and then find the speed.

Answer 23

The correct answer for the first part is 49.46

Answer 24

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%2880%2Fx%29%2B%2817%2F%28x-5%29%29%3D2+solve+for+x

Answer 25

My equation gives you 49.46.

Answer 26

the second is 44.46

Answer 27

Correct, because we solve for 49.46. Then we also know the second part of the trip was 5 mph slower so 49.46-5=44.46.

Answer 28

well that isn't the answer you provided lol

Answer 29

I provided you with an equation to solve. If you solved my equation you would have ended up with the correct answer.

Answer 30

The problem is that with your method we have two variables one is t and one is speed. It's a lot harder to solve problems with two variables and often you can't even do so. There is no need to use t as a variable because they give you t. It's 2 hours.