A 1,500 kg truck is towed sideways out of a mud-hole with a force of 15,000 N. How much acceleration is required for the tow tru
ck to move this vehicle?
1 answer:
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Answer:
- < 25 m/s
- triangle inequality
- between north and east
- 45° < angle < 60°
Explanation:
(a) Just as one-dimensional numbers add on a number line by putting them end-to-end, so two-dimensional numbers add on a coordinate plane the same way.
Here, we choose to let the positive y-axis represent North, and the positive x-axis, East. This is the way a map is conventionally oriented. The velocity of the plane is represented by a vector pointing north (up). Its length represents the magnitude of the velocity. Likewise, the wind is represented by a vector of length 15 pointing east (right). The sum of these is the hypotenuse of the triangle they form.
The magnitude of the sum can be found here using the Pythagorean theorem, but for the purpose of this question, you're not asked to find that.
Instead, you're asked to estimate whether it is more or less than 25 (m/s).
Your knowledge of the triangle inequality will tell you that the hypotenuse (resultant) must be shorter than the sum of the lengths of the sides of the triangle, hence must be less than 10+15 = 25.
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(b) The triangle inequality says the resultant is less than the sum of the other two sides of the triangle.
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(c) Since the wind is blowing the plane toward the east, but the plane is traveling toward the north, the resulting direction is somewhere between north and east.
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(d) "Somewhere between north and east" can be expressed as the inequality ...
0° < angle < 90°
