Complete question is;
Allyson and Adrian have decided to connect their ankles with a bungee cord; one end is tied to each person's ankle. The cord is 40 feet long, but can stretch up to 120 feet. They both start from the same location. Allyson moves 10 ft/sec and Adrian moves 9 ft/sec in the directions indicated. Adrian stops moving at time t = 5.5 sec, but Allyson keeps on moving 10 ft/sec in the indicated direction. (If a coordinate system is used, assume that the girls' starting position is located at
(x, y) = (0, 0) and that Allyson and Adrian move in the positive y and negative x directions, respectively. Let one unit equal one foot.)
Compute the length of the bungee cord at t = 7 seconds. (Round your answer to three decimal places.)
Answer:
Length of bungee cord = 85.734 ft
Explanation:
We are told that Adrian moves 9ft/sec. Thus, at 5.5 seconds, distance he moved is; 9 ft/sec × 5.5sec = 49.5 ft in the negative x (-x) direction. Therefore, the coordinate is (-49.5, 0).
Now, Allyson has moved 10ft/sec. Thus, at 7 seconds, distance he moved would be; 10 ft/sec x 7sec = 70 feet in the positive (+y) direction. Therefore, the coordinate is (0, 70).
Now, since they started from the origin, it means (0, 0) is a coordinate. Thus, we now have 3 coordinates which are; (0, 0), (0, 70) & (-49.5,0). These 3 coordinates would therefore combine to form a right triangle.
The hypotenuse is the distance between Allyson and Adrian.
Thus, from pythagoras theorem, we can find the distance between them which is same as the length of the cord.
Thus;
(-49.5)² + 70² = D².
D² = 2450.25 + 4900
D = √7350.25
D = 85.734 ft
