Question

A certain corner of a room is selected as the origin of a rectangular coordinate system. If a fly is crawling on an adjacent wall at a point having coordinates (3.1, 0.5), where the units are meters, what is the distance of the fly from the corner of the room? Answer needs to be in appropriate significant figures.

Answer 1

The distance is 3.1 m

Step-by-step explanation:

The position vector of the fly relative to the corner of the wall is

r = (3.1, 0.5).

The distance of the fly from the corner will be calculated as the magnitude of the vector "r"

magnitude of vector
`r = \sqrt{(3.1 m)^(2) + (0.5 m)^(2)} = 3.1 m`

Since the numbers to be added have only one decimal place 3.1 and 0.5, the result of the sum will have to have one decimal place. The result of the square root will also have one decimal place.