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aaron22197
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A swimmer practiced in a still water inlet a river made in 19 Jun 2008, 22:57
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A swimmer practiced in a still water inlet a river made in its bank, and achieved a speed of 4 km/h. When she was swimming upstream in the river, however, she could only make 3 km/h. One day the swimmer swam into the river from the inlet, then doubled the covered distance going downstream, and finally came back. She averaged 3.8 km/h that day. What was her downstream speed?

A)4
B)5
C)6
D)7
E)8

Can someone help me with the right equations for this question? I get confused reading it.



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durgesh79
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A swimmer practiced in a still water inlet a river made in 20 Jun 2008, 00:07
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aaron22197
A swimmer practiced in a still water inlet a river made in its bank, and achieved a speed of 4 km/h. When she was swimming upstream in the river, however, she could only make 3 km/h. One day the swimmer swam into the river from the inlet, then doubled the covered distance going downstream, and finally came back. She averaged 3.8 km/h that day. What was her downstream speed?

A)4
B)5
C)6
D)7
E)8

Can someone help me with the right equations for this question? I get confused reading it.
Show more

Is it B - 5. I'm not sure about my method. i'lll explain if its correct.
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iamcartic
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A swimmer practiced in a still water inlet a river made in 20 Jun 2008, 00:09
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Ans: 5 approximately

Upstream speed: 3kmph ---given
Let the distance be d and downstream speed be v then according to the Q stem

2d/(d/3 +d/v) = 3.8 => v = 5.1kmph
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aaron22197
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A swimmer practiced in a still water inlet a river made in 20 Jun 2008, 20:35
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OA is 5 guys.

Cartic , thanks for the explanation. But wudn't you consider the distance travelled within the inlet (Still water). Is Inlet only a single point or is it some distance variable?
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alpha_plus_gamma
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A swimmer practiced in a still water inlet a river made in 20 Jun 2008, 20:52
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>>What was her downstream speed?

Gosh! I didn't pay attention to the word "her"
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durgesh79
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A swimmer practiced in a still water inlet a river made in 20 Jun 2008, 21:00
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durgesh79
aaron22197
A swimmer practiced in a still water inlet a river made in its bank, and achieved a speed of 4 km/h. When she was swimming upstream in the river, however, she could only make 3 km/h. One day the swimmer swam into the river from the inlet, then doubled the covered distance going downstream, and finally came back. She averaged 3.8 km/h that day. What was her downstream speed?

A)4
B)5
C)6
D)7
E)8

Can someone help me with the right equations for this question? I get confused reading it.

Is it B - 5. I'm not sure about my method. i'lll explain if its correct.
Show more

Guys, About 10 years back, i did problems from a Physics book, by IE Irodov ( A Russian Author). Probably the best book on Physics problems at 10+2 level......

If i use the same concepts here..... we dont even need the second part of the question to solve this problem.... The logic is
if the speed of a boat/swimmer in still water is x and speed of the water is y.
then speed of boat/swimmer downstream = x+y
and speed of boat/swimmer upstream = x-y

so as per question x = 4
x-y = 3

so y = 1

and x+y = 5.... Answer.....
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aaron22197
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A swimmer practiced in a still water inlet a river made in 20 Jun 2008, 22:51
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wow, what a solution Durgesh..
I know a lot of IIT aspirants use Irodov as a Bible for physics problems. +1



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