Question

An airplane travels 3300km at a speed of 700km/h , and then encounters a tailwind that boosts its speed to 970km/h for the next 3000km
Can someone please tell me how to find the average velocity of the plane over the trip. I also needed to calculate the time of the trip and got a time of 7.81 hours.

Answer 1

\[v _{avg} = \frac{ \Delta x }{ \Delta t }\] to find "delta" find how long the airplane took to cover the distances with the respective velocity for that distance

Answer 2

delta t**

Answer 3

In which you already, so just plug and chug

Answer 4

I calculated 7.8 hours for the trip. But I am unsure how to find the average velocity over trip with the 2 velocities given.

Answer 5

When "average velocity" is asked, it's asking what's the average velocity over the "whole" trip which means the total displacement divided by the total time regardless of their change in velocity.

Answer 6

Sorry it ask for average speed of the whole trip.

Answer 7

Since speed is scalar unit it's regardless of direction in which we still use the same formula

Answer 8

Got it! Ok So average speed of the whole trip would be displacement divided by time so 3300+3000/7.81=809km/h

Answer 9

Right. But if you REALLY want to be technical average velocity is diplacement/time while average speed is distance traveled/time, but for this question, it's whatever. Good job.

Answer 10

Thanks!