Problema Solution

A plane flies round-trip to Philadelphia. If flies to Philadelphia at 220 miles per hour and back home with a tailwind at 280 miles per hour. If the total trip takes 6.5 hours, how many miles does the plane fly round-trip?

Answer provided by our tutors

distance = speed * time


Let 'd' represent distance and let 't' represent time to Philadelphia and '6.5-t' represents the time to return.


The trip to Philadeplphia:

d = 220 * t

The return trip back:

d = 280 * (6.5-t)


Set the distance equations equal since both trips cover the same distance:

220t = 280(6.5-t)

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solve for 't'

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t=3.64


So the trip to Philadelphia took 3.64 hours and the distance was:

d = 220*3.64

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solve for 'd'

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d=800.8


So the distance is approximately 801 miles, hence the round-trip is approximately 1600 miles.