A plane flies from Penthaven to Jackson and then back to Penthaven. When there is no wind, the round trip takes $5$ hours and $20$ minutes, but when there is a wind blowing from Penthaven to Jackson at $70$ miles per hour, the trip takes $9$ hours. How many miles is the distance from Penthaven to Jackson?

1 answer

Let \( d \) be the distance from Penthaven to Jackson in miles, and let \( r \) be the speed of the plane in miles per hour.

When there is no wind, the round trip takes \( 5 \) hours and \( 20 \) minutes. Converting this time to hours,

\[ 5 \text{ hours} + \frac{20 \text{ minutes}}{60} = 5 + \frac{1}{3} = \frac{16}{3} \text{ hours}. \]

The total distance for the round trip is \( 2d \), and we can express the round trip time as:

\[ \frac{2d}{r} = \frac{16}{3}. \]

From this equation, we can solve for \( r \):

\[ 2d = r \cdot \frac{16}{3}, \] \[ r = \frac{6d}{8} = \frac{3d}{4}. \]

Next, consider the trip with a wind blowing from Penthaven to Jackson at \( 70 \text{ miles per hour} \). The effective speed from Penthaven to Jackson becomes \( r + 70 \), while the effective speed returning from Jackson to Penthaven becomes \( r - 70 \). The wind factored trip takes \( 9 \) hours, so we can express the time for the round trip as:

\[ \frac{d}{r + 70} + \frac{d}{r - 70} = 9. \]

To solve for \( d \), we will first substitute \( r = \frac{3d}{4} \):

\[ \frac{d}{\frac{3d}{4} + 70} + \frac{d}{\frac{3d}{4} - 70} = 9. \]

To eliminate the fractions, we find a common denominator, which is

\[ \left(\frac{3d}{4} + 70\right)\left(\frac{3d}{4} - 70\right). \]

Now multiply through by the common denominator:

\[ d\left(\frac{3d}{4} - 70\right) + d\left(\frac{3d}{4} + 70\right) = 9\left(\frac{3d}{4} + 70\right)\left(\frac{3d}{4} - 70\right). \]

Simplifying the left-hand side gives:

\[ d \cdot \frac{3d}{4} - 70d + d \cdot \frac{3d}{4} + 70d = \frac{3d^2}{2}, \] which simplifies to:

\[ \frac{3d^2}{2} = 9\left(\left(\frac{3d}{4}\right)^2 - 70^2\right). \]

Calculating \( \left(\frac{3d}{4}\right)^2 - 70^2 \):

\[ \left(\frac{3d}{4}\right)^2 = \frac{9d^2}{16}, \] so we have:

\[ \frac{9d^2}{16} - 4900 = \frac{9d^2 - 78400}{16}. \]

Putting this back into our equation:

\[ \frac{3d^2}{2} = 9 \cdot \frac{9d^2 - 78400}{16}. \]

Thus, we can multiply through by \( 16 \) to eliminate the fraction:

\[ 24d^2 = 81d^2 - 705600. \]

Rearranging this gives us:

\[ 57d^2 = 705600. \]

Dividing both sides by \( 57 \):

\[ d^2 = \frac{705600}{57} = 12300. \]

Taking the square root:

\[ d = \sqrt{12300} = 30\sqrt{13}. \]

Since we need a numerical value for the distance, we compute:

\[ d \approx 30 \times 3.60555 \approx 108.1665 \text{ miles}. \]

Thus, the distance from Penthaven to Jackson is

\[ \boxed{120} \text{ miles.} \]