Physics Vectors Problem?

A boat has a still water speed of 10.5 m/s and launches in a river at 20° north of west. The river has a current of 3 m/s south. Calculate the resultant velocity the boat has relative to the Earth. Can you give steps don't just give me an answer.

Comments

  • To do this you'll need to add together 2 vectors: the boat's speed relative to water and the water's speed relative to earth:

    Let's define the X direction as west and the Y direction as north.

    Boat-to-water= (10.5*cos(20) , 10.5*sin(20)) (where this is the x and y parts)

    Water-earth = ( 0 , -3 )

    So you get the total by adding the x parts and adding the Y parts like this:

    Boat-to-earth = (10.5*cos(20) , 10.5*sin(20)-3)

    I'll let you punch in the sin and cosine and add those up.

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