Ling spent $23.96 on cooking fuel for an upcoming camping trip. If she bought 4 cans of fuel, how much did she pay for each can?
2 answers:
You might be interested in
Answer: < -4/5, 3/5>
This is equivalent to writing < -0.8, 0.6 >
======================================================
Explanation:
Draw an xy grid and plot the point (-4,3) on it. Draw a segment from the origin to this point. Then draw a vertical line until reaching the x axis. See the diagram below.
We have a right triangle with legs of 4 and 3. The hypotenuse is through use of the pythagorean theorem.
We have a 3-4-5 right triangle.
Therefore, the vector is 5 units long. This is the magnitude of the vector.
Divide each component by the magnitude so that the resulting vector is a unit vector pointing in this same direction.
Therefore, we go from < -4, 3 > to < -4/5, 3/5 >
This is equivalent to < -0.8, 0.6 > since -4/5 = -0.8 and 3/5 = 0.6
Side note: Unit vectors are useful in computer graphics.
