Hi,
I'm trying to solve this problem:
Phyllis is navigating her boat upstream in the Orinoco River. She plans to do a roundtrip voyage, heading back to where she began after circling around a buoy upstream. The speed of the current is 3 miles per hour. If Phyllis’ boat can travel 16 miles per hour in still water, how long does it take her to make her trip if the buoy is 2 miles from her starting point?
If I use my common sense, I would say that it takes Phyllis 15 minutes, because any time added going upstream would be made up for going downstream, so I could just solve this problem using 10mph as my rate:
t=d/r, t=4/16=1/4hr
But, if I break it down, calculating for the time on each individual leg of the trip, I get:
Upstream
r=16-3=13
Therefore,
t=d/r, t=2/13=approx 0.154
Downstream
t=d/r, r=16+3=19
Therefore,
t=d/r, t=2/19=approx 0.105
Total time = 0.154+0.105 = approx 0.259, which is a tad over 15 minutes.
Please help! Why do I get different answers?
Ara