Homework Help: trigonometry HARD!!

Posted by jake on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 7:15pm.

An airplane flies due north from a starting point at 234.6 mph for 40 minutes. Then turns flying 20 minutes at 252 mph in the direction N 20 degree 31 minutes East. How many miles is the airplane from the starting point?

trigonometry HARD!! - Reiny, Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at 8:35pm
find the two distances:
northbound part = 234.6(40/60) = 156.4 miles
NE part = 252(20/60) = 84 miles

N 20°31' E = N 20.5166667 ° E

I see a triangle with sides 156.4 and 84 with an angle of 159.48333 between them.

by cosine law
x^2 = 156.4^2 + 84^2 - 2(156.4)(84)cos 159.48333
= ...

I will let you slug it out

(I got 236.9 miles)

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