Question

you walk through a field 200 m north. you then change your direction and walk 150 m at an angle of 35° north of west. what is your total displacement?

Answer 1

To calculate the student's total displacement after walking 200 m north and then 150 m at a 35° angle north of west, use vector addition to draw the displacement vectors and then find the magnitude and direction of the resultant vector.

Step-by-step explanation:

To find the total displacement of the student who walks 200 m north and then 150 m at an angle of 35° north of west, we will use vector addition. Displacement is a vector quantity, which means it has both magnitude and direction.

To determine the total displacement, one must perform the following steps:

1. Draw vector A representing the walk 200 m north (straight upwards in the diagram).
2. Draw vector B representing the walk 150 m at a 35° angle north of west. This vector starts where vector A ended.
3. Use the tail-to-head method to connect the two vectors linearly.
4. The resulting vector (diagonal line) from the starting point to the end of vector B is the total displacement.

To calculate the magnitude of the total displacement vector, one can use trigonometric functions if precise calculations are required or could estimate it using the scale of the drawing. The direction of the displacement can be found using the angle between the resultant displacement vector and a reference axis, such as the north direction.