Question

During the first part of a rip a canoeist travels 43 miles at a certain speed. The canoeist ravels 19 miles on the seond part of the trip at a speed 5 mph slower. The total time for the rip is 2 hours. What is the speed on each part of the trip?

Answer 1

let speed on first trip be x mph
then speed on second trip is x-5 mph

time for first part = 43/x
time for second part = 19/(x-5)

solve:
43/x + 19/(x-5) = 2

hint: multiply each term by x(x-5) to obtain a quadratic.