Question

An ant starts at one edge of a long strip of paper that is 34.2 cm wide. She travels at 0.4 cm/s at an angle of 52◦ with the long edge. How long will it take her to get across? Answer in units of s.

Answer 1

Answer:

$t=108.50s$

Explanation:

The ant is under an uniform motion. So, we get the time taken by the ant to cross the strip from the definition of speed:

$v=\frac{x}{t}\\t=\frac{x}{v}$

In this case, we use the vertical speed of the ant ($v_y=vsin\theta$), since the ant crosses the strip that is 34.2 cm wide (vertically). So:

$t=\frac{y}{v_y}\\t=\frac{y}{vsin\theta}\\t=\frac{34.2cm}{0.4\frac{cm}{s}sin(52^\circ)}\\t=108.50s$