Question

Kent swam 150 m up a river that has a steady current in 5 minutes and returned downstream in 3 minutes. How fast would he have swum in still water, and what? is the speed of the current

Answer 1

To find the speed at which the swimmer would have swum in still water, use the formula: Speed of swimmer = (speed of swimmer downstream + speed of swimmer upstream)/2. The speed of the swimmer in still water is 25 m/min, and the speed of the current is 5 m/min.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the speed at which the swimmer would have swum in still water, we can use the formula:

Speed of swimmer = (speed of swimmer downstream + speed of swimmer upstream)/2

Let's call the speed of the swimmer in still water 's' and the speed of the current 'c'.

According to the given information, it took the swimmer 5 minutes to swim 150 m upstream and 3 minutes to swim 150 m downstream.

We can set up two equations to represent these situations:

150 = (s - c) * 5

150 = (s + c) * 3

We can solve these equations simultaneously to find the values of 's' and 'c'.

By solving these equations, we can find that the speed of the swimmer in still water (s) is 25 m/min, and the speed of the current (c) is 5 m/min.