Question

Two ships leave a harbor at the same time, traveling on courses that have an angle of 120 degrees between them. If the first ship travels at 22 miles per hour and the second ship travels at 25 miles per hour, how far apart are the two ships after 2.8 hours ?

Distance=

ANSWER IS NOT 143 or 97

Answer 1

52.98 miles

Explanation:

We can use the Law of Cosines to solve the problem.

Let's call the distance between the two ships after 2.8 hours "d".

Using the Law of Cosines, we have:

d^2 = (222.8)^2 + (252.8)^2 - 2(222.8)(252.8)cos(120)

Simplifying this expression, we get:

d^2 = 1232 + 1575 - 2(22252.8*(-0.5))

d^2 = 2807.6

Taking the square root of both sides, we get:

d = 52.98 miles (rounded to two decimal places)

Therefore, the two ships are about 52.98 miles apart after 2.8 hours.