Clue to Puzzle #37: An Aerople Takes a Roundtrip in the Wind
37. If an aeroplane makes a round trip and a wind is blowing, is the trip time shorter, longer or the same?
So a roundtrip means it starts in the same place it finishes. The simplest model is that it flies off in to the wind turns around and flies back to where it started. On one leg it has the wind speed added and on the other subtracted.It's probably easiest if you just think of a plane speed a wind speed and a distance and run the numbers.
In the answer we will explore why and look at similar examples as well as a mathematical proof.
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