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Start by finding the distances traveled on the trips downstream and the upstream separately using the Distance Formula.
H
We want to find how far a boat traveled on a river. We know that a boat took 4 hours on the trip downstream with a current of 6 kilometers per hour. Let x be the speed of the boat. Since the boat and the current were in the same direction on the trip downstream, we can express the total speed as x+6. Let's now find the distance traveled on the trip downstream.
Speed * Time = & Distance
⇓
( x+6) * 4 = & 4x+24
Great! We also know that the return trip took 10 hours against the same current, 6 kilometers per hour. This time, since the current and the boat were in the opposite directions, the total speed will be x-6. With this information we can find the distance traveled on the return trip following similar reasoning as for the trip downstream.
LHS+60=RHS+60
LHS-4x=RHS-4x
.LHS /6.=.RHS /6.
Rearrange equation
With the speed of the boat, we can find the total distance traveled on this trip. Let's substitute x= 14 into one of the distance expressions. We can choose 4x+24.
The boat will travel 80 kilometers in one direction and 80 kilometers in the other direction. Downstream:& 80 Upstream:& 80 Total Distance:& 160 In total the boat traveled 160 kilometers on the river, which corresponds to option H.