boat took 7 hrs to travel 231 miles with current but....

Please help! I have no idea where to start this problem!

It took a boat 7 hours to travel 231 miles with the current but 11 hours to travel the same distance against that same current. Find the speed of the boat in the still water and the speed of the current.

Re: Distance, speed problem.. PLEASE HELP ASAP!

You have NO idea? How can that be: bad teacher, missed classes?

FORMULA: speed = distance / time

b = boat speed
c = current speed

So speed with current = b+c, speed against current = b-c

If that's not enough, you need classroom help.

Re: Distance, speed problem.. PLEASE HELP ASAP!

It took a boat 7 hours to travel 231 miles with the current but 11 hours to travel the same distance against that same current. Find the speed of the boat in the still water and the speed of the current.

Click to expand...

Knowing that the problem involves V = D/T, where V = speed, D = distance and T = time, review what you have in the way of information. In this case V involves a current speed, C.
.V......D......T
(V+C)..231.....7
(V-C)..231....11

Seeking V and C, we can write
V+C = 231/7 and
V-C = 231/11

I'll let you determine what adding both equations to o ne another yields you.