Question

7. A boat in calm seas travels in a straight line and ends the trip 22 km west and 53 km north of its original position. To the nearest tenth of a degree, find the direction of the trip.

Answer 1

Draw (or imagine) a right triangle with the leg pointing north = 53 and the leg pointing west = 22. Then, the hypotenuse is in the addres of the boat

The angle of the hypotenuse with the "west-leg" is such that:

tan(angle) = 53 /22, and

the angle is the "inverse-tan" of 53/22 = 67.46°.= 67.5°

Then, the direction is 67.5° north of west.