Question

Determine the Northward and the Eastward components of a 75 m long displacement vector which points in a direction of 27^o E of N.

Answer 1

Eastward = 34.05m

Northward = 66.8m

Step-by-step explanation:

First, let's define our coordinate axis.

I will choose the North as the positive y-axis and the East as the positive x-axis.

Now we will work with polar coordinates, r and θ and remember that if we want to recover the rectangular coordinates, we need to compute:

x = r*cos(θ)

y = r*sin(θ)

(remember that θ is measured counterclockwise from the positive x-axis)

Now we have:

"... 75 m long displacement vector..."

r = 75m

"...points in a direction of 27° E of N..."

This means that the measure is from the positive y-axis, clockwise (so this is not equivalent to θ).

Now, remember that the angle between the positive y-axis and the positive x-axis is 90°.

Then we will have that θ is the complementary angle to 27°, or:

θ = 90° - 27° = 63°

Now we have θ and r, then we can calculate the rectangular components:

x = 75m*cos(63°) = 34.05m (this is the Eastward component)

y = 75m*sin(63°) = 66.8m (this is the Northward component)