As Rita drives north on Highway 281 through San Antonio, her actual bearing is 311 degrees. If she is driving at 50mph what is her velocity in the east- west direction?
To find Rita's velocity in the east-west direction, we'll need to use trigonometry.
Rita's bearing of 311 degrees means she is drifting away from the north towards the west. We can determine the east-west component of her velocity by finding the cosine of the angle between her bearing (311 degrees) and due north (0 degrees).
The formula for finding the east-west component of velocity is:
East-West Velocity = Velocity * cosine(Bearing)
Given that Rita's velocity is 50mph, we can substitute this value into the formula:
East-West Velocity = 50mph * cosine(311 degrees)
To calculate the cosine of 311 degrees, we need to convert it to radians. The formula to convert degrees to radians is:
Radians = Degrees * (pi / 180)
So, to determine the east-west component of her velocity, we can substitute the converted angle into the formula:
East-West Velocity = 50mph * cosine(311 degrees * (pi / 180))
Calculating this expression yields the east-west component of Rita's velocity.