Question

I need help with this question to turn it into an equation. The question is

A bird flew 12 miles in an hour aided by a tailwind.then it turned and flew back against the wind but was able to fly only 4 miles per hour.what was the speed of the wind?how fast would the bird have flown if there had Been no wind. Can you put it. Into a equation

Answer 1

Sure, here is how I broke it down. The bird is flying a constant X miles per hour with a wind speed of Y miles per hour. So, there are two equations that you use to solve. Here they are:

X+Y=12
X-Y=4

Now, you have to use substitution or elimination to solve (I will use elimination). To use elimination, you simply add both equations together to get:

2X=16
Solve for X by dividing by 2.

X=8. We already established that X is the speed of the bird. Plug X back into either of the equations to find the windspeed.

(8)+Y=12

Subtract 8 from both sides.

Y=4. We already established that Y is the windspeed.

So, the speed of the bird (X) is 8mph and the speed of the wind (Y) is 4mph.

Hope this helped!!