A meteor streaking through the night sky is located with radar. At point A its coordinates are (5.20km,1.20km), and 1.16s later its has moved to point B with coordinates (6.08km, 0.900km ).
a) find the x comonent of it average velocity between A and B. .759km/s
b) y= .259 km/s
c) magintude= .801
****the only problem im having trouble on is this....
Find the direction of its average velocity between these two points.
=? counterwise from axis
i tried doing tan-1(.259/.759)= 18.84 and its wrong
I agree with your angle, assuming your velocity components are correct. However i don't see why two dimensions are being used to describe the position. Meteors move in three dimensions.
so what would that last problem be ?
how to solve it?
To find the direction of the average velocity between points A and B, you can use the inverse tangent function (tan^-1) with the ratio of the y-component to the x-component of the average velocity.
In this case, the y-component of the average velocity is 0.259 km/s and the x-component is 0.759 km/s.
The formula to find the direction in counter-clockwise (anticlockwise) from the positive x-axis is given by:
θ = tan^-1(y-component / x-component)
Let's substitute the values into the formula:
θ = tan^-1(0.259 / 0.759)
Using a calculator, you can evaluate this expression:
θ ≈ 19.9 degrees
Therefore, the direction of the average velocity between points A and B is approximately 19.9 degrees counter-clockwise from the positive x-axis.