Use the three steps to solve the problem. With a certain tail wind a jet aircraft arrives at its destination, 1,890 miles away, in 3 hours. Flying against the same wind, the plane makes the return trip in 3 3/8 hours. Find the wind speed and the plane's airspeed. {wind speed is ? a0 mph, airspeed is ? a1 mph}

To answer this item, we let x be the speed of the jet plane in still air and y be the speed of the wind. It is known that distance traveled by an object is the product of its speed and the time. With this concept, the linear equation that would allow us to solve the problem is,
  
       (x + y)(3) = 1890
       (x - y)(3 3/8) = 1890

The values of x and y from the equation are 595 and 35.

Answer: speed of the wind = 35 mi/h
              speed of aircraft = 595 mi/h