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A ship leaves port at noon and has a bearing of S 32° W. The ship sails at 20 knots.

(a) How many nautical miles south and how many nautical miles west will the ship have traveled by 6:00 P.M.? (Round your answers to two decimal places.)
miles south: ______
miles west: ______

(b) At 6:00 P.M., the ship changes course to due west. Find the ship's bearing and distance from port at 7:00 P.M. (Round your answers to one decimal place.)
S______° W
_______nautical miles

User Deepsky
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1 Answer

10 votes

Answer:

(a) 101.77 mi S; 63.59 mi W

(b) S 39.4° W; 131.7 nautical miles

Explanation:

(a)

In the 6 hours from noon until 6 pm, the ship will have traveled a distance of ...

distance = speed × time

distance = (20 nm/h) × (6 h) = 120 nm . . . . . . using "nm" for nautical miles

In (S, W) coordinates, the location of the ship will be ...

120(cos(32°), sin(32°)) ≈ 120(0.848048, 0.529919) ≈ (101.77, 63.59)

The ship will have traveled 101.77 miles south and 63.59 miles west.

__

(b)

In the 1 hour from 6 pm to 7 pm, the ship will have traveled an additional 20 miles west. In (S, W) coordinates, its location at 7 pm is (101.77, 83.59). The distance from port will be ...

d = √(101.77² +83.59²) ≈ 131.7 . . . nautical miles

The direction from the port is ...

arctan(83.59/101.77) ≈ 39.4°

The bearing and distance are ...

  • S 39.4° W
  • 131.7 nautical miles

_____

Additional comment

The math for bearings and distances works the same for any consistent set of reference directions and angles. Here, all of the points of interest are in the 3rd quadrant of the Cartesian plane. The given angle is measured CW from south. It is convenient to use (south, west) coordinates so that we can use the distance and angle measures directly, without having to translate to (x, y) coordinates.

If bearings are given as angles CW from north, then it is convenient to use (N, E) coordinates.

A ship leaves port at noon and has a bearing of S 32° W. The ship sails at 20 knots-example-1
User Nayrb
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