displacement of boat problem help please?

M

Malk

New member
a boat is being propelled by the wind to the west at a speed of 6m/s .if the current is flowing to the northeast at 3m/s .what will the resultant displacement of the boat be in 10 min?
 
D

daveb

Member
The boat will travel 3.6km West in the 10 minutes. ( 6m/sx60x10).
BUT
It is also being pushed 1.8km North East in that time. (3m/sx60x10)
This problem is best solved by graphical means.

Draw a point A, then at some scale draw a horizontal line to the Left to represent the 3.6km West travel. Now at the left hand end, mark the point B. From point B, draw a line up to the Right at 45 degrees from the horizontal line. Scale this line to represent the 1.8km. Mark the end of this line C. Your final motion of the boat is the distance and angle from A to C. I hope that helps.

This is a simple vector problem, if your trig is good enough, you can solve without the sketch.
 
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