A car is driven 80 km west and then 30 km 45 degree south of west. What is the displacement of the car from the point of origin? ( magnitude and displacement).

1 Answer
Mar 16, 2018

Let's break the displacement vector in to two perpendicular component i.e the vector which is #30Km# #45^@# south of west.

So,along west component of this displacement was #30 sin 45# and along south this was #30 cos 45#

So,net displacement towards west was #80+30 sin 45=101.20Km#

and,towards south it was #30 cos 45=21.20Km#

So,net displacement was #sqrt(101.20^2 +21.20^2)=103.4 Km#

Making an angle of #tan^-1(21.20/101.20)=11.82^@# w.r.t west
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Well this could have been solved using simple vector addition without taking perpendicular components,so I would request you to try that of your own,

Thank you :)