Darryl drives his load of tomatoes.... (Velocity vectors pic)

[A-linav]

Homework Statement

Homework Equations

a^2+b^2=c^2
c^2=a^2+b^2-2abCos(theta)

The Attempt at a Solution

I'm having trouble trying to draw out the vectors. This is my attempt. I feel like it is wrong. Can someone help out please?

Also, I'm not sure where to go from here... If I used a^2+b^2=c^2 it would only give me the outside part of the triangle not considering the other two vectors inside of it. What do I do at this point?

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[andrewkirk]

His distance traveled is just the sum of the lengths of each of the legs of his journey.

To get the displacement vector, first split each of the vectors into a North component and an East component. Use trig to do the split for directions that are not pure North or East. Then add up all the North components to get an overall North component and separately add all the East components to get an overall East component. These are the two components of the final displacement.

The displacement vector is the hypotenuse of a right-angle triangle whose base is the overall East component and height is the overall North component.

 

[DrClaude]

I'm having trouble trying to draw out the vectors. This is my attempt. I feel like it is wrong.

You have to add each vector at the end of the other. For instance, in your diagram, after having drawn the 14 km vector going to the right, the second vector should start at the right end of the first vector and go up from there, and so on.

 

[A-linav]

His distance traveled is just the sum of the lengths of each of the legs of his journey.

To get the displacement vector, first split each of the vectors into a North component and an East component. Use trig to do the split for directions that are not pure North or East. Then add up all the North components to get an overall North component and separately add all the East components to get an overall East component. These are the two components of the final displacement.

The displacement vector is the hypotenuse of a right-angle triangle whose base is the overall East component and height is the overall North component.

I think I understand now. I'll give it another try tonight and post the answer here