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Jose swam 8 kilometers against the current in the same amount of time it took him to swim 16 kilometers with the current. The rate of the current was 1 kilometer per hour. How fast would Jose swim if there were no current?

User Sivakumar
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1 Answer

5 votes

Answer:

3 km/h

Explanation:

You want to know Jose's swimming speed in still water if his time with the current for 16 km is the same as his time for 8 km when swimming against the current. The current is 1 km/h.

Time

Time is related to speed and distance by ...

time = distance/speed

If s is Jose's swimming speed, then the equal times mean ...

16/(s +1) = 8/(s -1)

16s -16 = 8s +8 . . . . . . . cross multiply

8s = 24 . . . . . . . . . . . add 16 -8s

s = 3 . . . . . . . . . . divide by 8

Jose would swim 3 km/h if there were no current.

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Additional comment

This speed is on par with an average amateur's speed for a marathon swim of the same distance. That would be about 3.2 kph for 10 km, decreasing for each additional km. Here, Jose is swimming 4 hours at that rate, an equivalent distance of 12 km.

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User Fantasy Fang
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