"Lashonda swam 4 kilometers against the current in the same amount of time it took her to swim 16 kilometers with the current. The rate of the current was 3 kilometers per hour. How fast would Lashonda swim if there were no current?"

5 km/h

Step-by-step explanation:

In this problem, Lashonda swam 4 km against the current. So the distance covered in this case is

Calling the velocity of Lahonda without the current, and the velocity of the current, in this situation Lahonda's velocity is

So we can write:

where is the time taken to cover the distance.

When Lashonda swims with the current, her velocity is

So we can write

where

is the distance covered in this case, and the time taken.

The velocity of the current is

Since Lashonad takes the same time to cover the two distances,

So we can write

And solving for v, we find Lashonda's velocity without the current: