What is the average speed of the mississippi river?

Question

For instance if I where to put a single drop of water at the start of the mississippi, How long would it take for that single drop to reach the end of the river?

Answer 1

I found this by gooling <river flows mississippi>

How fast does it move?

At the headwaters of the Mississippi, the average surface speed of the water if about 1.2 miles per hour - or about one third as fast as most people walk.

Other websites indicate that the flow will speed up and slow down according to how much elevation drop is taking place.  Also the cross sectional area of the river will effect the answer.  Think of a brook that feeds into a lake and a brook going out the other end.  The brooks could easily be 10 mph and the water in the lake extremely slower due to the lakes large cross sectional area.