Question

After sailing due south for 25.2km, a ship turns into a westerly course and sails until it is exactly 28km in a straight line from its starting point. How far did the ship travel on the Westley heading?

Answer 1

In order to calculate the distance traveled on the Westley heading, we can use the Pythagorean Theorem, where the distance of 28 km is the hypotenuse of the right triangle:

So we have:

`\begin{gathered} 28^2=x^2+25.2^2 \\ 784=x^2+635.04 \\ x^2=784-635.04 \\ x^2=148.96 \\ x=12.2 \end{gathered}`

Therefore the ship traveled 12.2 km on the Westley heading.