Question

A weather station releases a weather balloon. The balloon's buoyancy accelerates it straight up at 10.4 meters per second per second. At the same time, a wind accelerates it horizontally at 8.89 meters per second per second. What is the direction (with reference to the horizontal) of the resultant acceleration?

Answer 1

Answer: 50.2 degrees above the horizontal.

Explanation: To determine the direction of the resultant acceleration, we can calculate the angle using trigonometry. By taking the inverse tangent of the vertical acceleration (10.4 m/s^2) divided by the horizontal acceleration (8.89 m/s^2), we can find the angle of the resultant acceleration with respect to the horizontal.

Therefore, the direction of the resultant acceleration is 50.2 degrees above the horizontal.