Question

An airplane is traveling 835km/h in a direction 41.5 west of north. Find the components of the velocity vector in the northerly and westernly directions. How far north and how far west has the plane traveled after 2.50h?

Answer 1

As the angle has been measured from north, the north component should be calculated with cosine and the west component should be calculated with sine: Vn = 835km/h*cos(41.5) =625 km/h Vw = 835km/h*sin(41.5) =553 km/h In order to calculate the distance travelled after 2.5 hours, we should use the uniform linear movement formula: d=v*t total distance (modulus of the distance)= 835km/h*2.5h=2088 km Or we can calculate each component (north and west): dn=625 km/h*2.5h=1563 km dw=553 km/h*2.5h=1383 km