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A person drives 20 miles north and 45 miles east. What is the angle of the resultant straight to their destination?

User Dpritch
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1 Answer

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Let us take east and north as the positive x and y-axes should the motion be plotted in a cartesian plane. Thus, the x value is 45 miles and the y value is 20. The tangent of an angle is equal to the ratio of y to x.

tanθ = y / x

Substituting,

tanθ = 20/45 = 0.44

The value of θ is 23.96°.
User Twotwotwo
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