Math Sample Problems 1. A boat travels at the rate of 8kph in still water, If it can travel a given distance upstream in 5 hours and the same distance in 3 hours, what is the rate of the current? Let the speed of the current be x upstream the boat will lose speed by x mph. So the boats speed will be 8-x mph Time taken is 5 hours So distance traveled is rate * time (8-x) * 5 Downstream the boat will gain speed . So the speed will be 8+x Distance traveled = 3*(8+x) Since the distance upstream and donstream are same 5*(8-x)= 3*(8+x) 40-5x= 24+3x 40-24= 3x+5x 16=8x 16/8=x x=2 Speed of the current = 2mph 2. What is the value of x-6 if 2(x-3)+5=19? Step-by-step explanation: We do not know the value of x so we first get the value of x: 2(x-3)+5=19 2x-6+5=19 2x-1=19 2x-1+1=19+1 2x=19+1 2x=20 x=10 Since we already know that x=10, we simply substitute the value of x to x-6 10-6=4