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Two geological field teams are working in a remote area. A global positioning system (GPS) tracker at their base camp shows the location of the first team as 39 km away, 11° north of west, and the second team as 31 km away, 37° east of north. When the first team uses its GPS to check the position of the second team, what does the GPS give for the second team's distance from the first team ___________________ km

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To calculate the distance between two geological field teams, we use vector addition and trigonometry to find the resultant displacement, involving calculations of vector components and applying the Pythagorean theorem to obtain the final answer.

To find the distance between the first and second geological field teams, we need to use vector addition and trigonometry to calculate the resultant displacement. The first team's displacement vector is 39 km, 11° north of west, and the second team's displacement vector is 31 km, 37° east of north. We calculate the components of each vector and then find the difference between the corresponding components. (The west-east component and the south-north component.). Finally, we apply the Pythagorean theorem to find the magnitude of the resultant vector, which represents the distance between the two teams.

The explanation here is brief due to space constraints, but the process involves breaking down the vectors into their respective components along the north-south and east-west axes, subtracting these to find the relative displacement vector components, and then using Pythagorean theorem for the final distance.

The conclusion would be the numerical answer to this calculation, expressing in kilometers the distance from the first team to the second team as measured by the GPS.

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