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18 votes
18 votes
A hiker begins a trip by first walking 22.2 km

southeast from her base camp. On the second
day, she walks 40.1 km in a direction 65° north
of east, at which point she discovers a forest
ranger's tower.
Determine the y component of the total
displacement.
Answer in units of km.

User StrangeWill
by
2.9k points

1 Answer

17 votes
17 votes

9514 1404 393

Answer:

20.6 km

Explanation:

Using (East, North) coordinates, the hiker's position ends up being ...

22.2(cos(-45°), sin(-45°)) +40.1(cos(65°), sin(65°))

We're only interested in the second coordinate of this total, which is ...

22.2sin(-45°) +40.1sin(65°) ≈ -15.698 +36.343 = 20.645 . . . km

The y-component of the hiker's position at the end of the second day is 20.6 km north of her starting location.

User Qwerty Qwerts
by
2.8k points