Thread: speed and distance word problem

Two planes start from the same airport and fly in opposite directions. The second plane starts one-half hour after the first plane, but its speed is 80 kilometers faster. Find the air speed of each plane if 2 hours after the first plane departs the planes are 3200 kilometers apart.

I keep reading this problem over and over but it gets me confused everytime. I even tried drawing a diagram.

The first plane flies for 2 hrs, so its distance is 2r

The second plane travels for 1.5 hours and 80 km faster, so it travels km.

Between them they cover 3200 km



Solve for r and you have the rates of the planes.

Wow.. it's not so bad o.o Thanks so much for the help!