Question

A seagull flies at a velocity of 9.00 m/s straight into the wind. if it takes the bird 20.0 min to travel 6.00 km relative to the earth, what is the velocity of the wind?

Answer 1

4.00 m/s First, calculate the over all speed of the bird in m/s by dividing the distance by the time. Since I want m/s, I'll first convert the distance to meters and the time to seconds. 6000 m / 1200 s = 5 m/s Now the ground speed of the bird is it's flight speed minus the wind velocity. So make an equation showing this and the ground speed. 5 m/s = 9.00 m/s - x And solve for x 5 m/s = 9.00 m/s - x Add x to both sides x + 5 m/s = 9.00 m/s Subtract 5 m/s from both sides x = 4.00 m/s Therefore the wind velocity is 4.00 m/s