Question

You walk 53 m to the north, then turn 60° to your right and walk another 45 m. Determine the direction of your displacement vector. Express your answer as an angle relative to east.

A) 50° north of east
B) 63° north of east
C) 57° north of east
D) 69° north of east
E) 43° north of east

Answer 1

The displacement vector direction after walking 53 m north and then turning 60° right to walk another 45 m is 60° north of east.

Step-by-step explanation:

The direction of your displacement vector after walking 53 m to the north and then turning 60° to your right to walk another 45 m can be found using vector addition. The first step is to understand that turning 60° to your right from north places you in a direction 30° south of east, since a full right-angle turn would be 90° and you've only turned two-thirds of that. Next, since we are changing the reference to east, you subtract the 30° from 90° to re-orient the angle. This gives you 60° north of east. Therefore, the displacement vector is at an angle of 60° north of east, or equivalently, 30° east of north.