Physics: Finding Velocity?
A boat wants to go straight across a stream 246 meters wide. The stream has a current velocity of 4.37 m/s, south and the boat is pointed in a direction 30.5 degrees east of north.
(a) With what velocity (in m/s) will the boat need to travel (relative to water) to accomplish its goal of traveling straight across?
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
consider the north-south direction is the X-axis.And all the 3 velocity has their x-component along this axis.
from the consideration, the boat wants to go through the y-axis.
in order to do so, it need to have its x-component exactly opposite to the flow.
so,
Vbcos30.5=4.37
or, Vb=5.07 m/s
so the vel. of the boat is 5.07 degree along 30.5 degrees east of north.