# An ant on the edge of a disc

omc1

## Homework Statement

An ant positioned on the very edge of a Beatles record that is 14.80 cm in radius revolves through an angle of 70.0o as the disk turns. What is the ant's path length?
What is the magnitude of the ant's displacement?

L=Rtheta

## The Attempt at a Solution

i was able to find the path length to 0.181 m and that's right but i can't find the displacement which seems like it should be easy...i used c^2=a^2+b^2 but that didnt work then i used costheta that didnt work so i used s=rtheta and that didnt work so ...please help, thanks

Gold Member
2022 Award
This gives you an isosceles triangle with two known sides and the angle between them also known ... how hard can it be ? Divide it into two right triangles and go from there.

omc1
i did that and CAPA is still rejecting my answer...

Mentor
i did that and CAPA is still rejecting my answer...

Why don't you write out, in full, one of your attempts so that we can see what might be going wrong?

omc1
i did radius times tan35 equal the opposite leg then multiply by two ...207

Mentor
i did radius times tan35 equal the opposite leg then multiply by two ...207

Ah, but I don't see that expression being correct. The radius is not the adjacent leg of the triangle.

omc1
ic i found my mistake, thanks!