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A plane is headed due west with an air speed of 223 m/s. The wind blows south at 21.0 m/s. Find the velocity of the plane relative to the earth.

User ThunderStruct
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2 Answers

15 votes
15 votes

Answer:

So first off, I would draw a picture of your vectors. I would draw the plan heading west (to the right) as a horizontal line with a magnitude of 224m/s. Then I would draw a vertical line downwards to represent the wind blowing south at 15.5m/s. If you put those together, you get a right angle. To make a triangle, draw the hypotenuse and now you have the vector representation of the velocity of the plane relative to the earth. To find the magnitude, use the Pythagorean theorem to find the hypotenuse.

a2 = b2 + c2

velocity of the plane 2 = (224m/s)2 + (15.5m/s)2

velocity of the plane 2 = 50,176 + 240.25 = 50,416.25

square root both sides

velocity of the plane = (50,416.25)1/2 = 224.54m/s with direction: a little bit south of west

Step-by-step explanation:

User Frank LaRosa
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28 votes
28 votes

Answer:a plane is headed

Explanation: due west with an air

User Keith
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