Question

A bird leaves its nest and travels 20 miles per hour downwind for x hours. On the return trip, the bird travels 4 miles per hour slower and has 6 miles left after x hours.

Answer 1

Given speed and distance, time can be calculated with speed x time = distance That means as the bird travels for 20 mph for x hours, it travels a distance of (20x) miles. Going back, the bird travels 4 mph slower. With its speed of 16 miles/h, the total distance traveled after x hours will be (16x) miles. This leaves a remaining of 6 miles for the bird to travel. Equating this, we have (20x) = (16x) + 6 20x - 16x = 6 4x = 6 x = 1.5 To get the distance, we substitute x into either (20x) or (16x + 6) which gives a value of 30 miles.