Question

A basketball player shoots the ball with an initial velocity of 14.4 ft./sec at an angle of 41.9 degrees with the horizontal. to the nearest tenth, find the initial horizontal component of the vector that represents the velocity of the ball.

a)4.8 ft./sec
b)5.4 ft/sec
c)9.6 ft./sec
d)10.7 ft./sec

Answer 1

The answer to this would be D) 10.7 ft./sec

Answer 2

For a better understanding of the solution provided here please go through the diagram in the file attached.

As can be seen from the diagram, we need to find the initial horizontal component of the vector that represents the velocity of the ball. Let us represent that initial horizontal component by,
`\boldsymbol{v_x}`.

Now, since basketball player shoots the ball with an initial velocity,
`\boldsymbol{v}`, of 14.4 ft./sec at an angle of 41.9 degrees with the horizontal, we can find the initial horizontal component by,
`\boldsymbol{v_x}` using the following formula:

`\boldsymbol{v_x}= \boldsymbol{v}cos(\theta)=14.4* cos(41.9^(\circ))\approx10.72` ft./sec