Question

A duck is paddling due East at 1.1 m/s across the river while it flows due South at 0.55 m/s What is her resultant velocity?

Answer 1

The diagram representing this scenario is shown below

A right angle triangle is formed. R represents the resultant velocity. To find R, we would apply the pythagorean theorem which is expressed as

hypotenuse^2 = one leg^2 + other leg^2

From the diagram,

hypotenuse = R

one leg = 1.1

other leg = 0.55

Thus,

R^2 = 1.1^2 + 0.55^2 = 1.5125

Taking square root of both sides,

R = square root of 1.5125

R = 1.23

The resultant velocity is 1.23 m/s