Question

Brian's wolf ghost runs 50 m northwest, then 70 m west and finally 20 m south. Draw a graphical representation of ghosts movement. Calculate ghost's net displacement a) in a component form and b) as a magnitude and an angle

Answer 1

SOLUTION

The graphical representation can be shown as follows:

Part (a)

In vector form the first displacement (norwest) can be written as:

or

For second displacement (to the west) we have:

Similarly, for third displacement (to the South) we have:

Finally, the x-component of the net displacement can be obtained adding the x-components of (1) , (2) and (3) as follows:

Similarly, the y-component of the net displacement is:

Therefore, the net dispacement is:

Part (b)

The magnitude is:

And, the direction is: