Homework Help: Math (Pre-cal)

Posted by Dragon on Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 8:24pm.

I can't seem to figure this out.
A ship leaves at noon and travels due West at 20 knots. At 2:00 it changes to N54°W...Find the bearing and the distance FROM port at 3:00 pm.
I've looked at this program for a while but can't figure it out.

Math (Pre-cal) - MathMate, Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 8:59pm
What program are you looking at?
The calculations can be done by hand.

The ships sails due west for two hours at 20 knots, so by 14:00, it is 40 knots west of port.

It then changes course to N54°W for one hour. So it has travelled further west 20*tan(54°) and towards north 20cot(54°).

So total distance due west
x = -(40+20tan(54°))
and due north
y = 20cot(54°)
Thus bearing at 15:00 is
N tan^-1(x/y) W

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