Finding Displacement and Distance for a Sailboat Moving at a Constant Speed

[hurtingBrain]

Homework Statement

A sailboat runs before the wind with a constant speed of 1.7 m/s in a dircetion 43.4 (degrees) north of west. how far west has the sailboat traveled in 35 min in km and how far north has the sailboat traveled in 35 min in km?

Homework Equations

i was using V=Vo + at to find the acceleration and than use x=1/2 at^2 + Vot + Xo to find the distance.

The Attempt at a Solution

i drew it out and saw a triangle. so i thought you can use some trig to get the displacement and than i used the formulas above to find the distance, but i got the answer wrong. Am i doing this problem? can someone help me

 

[method_man]

A sailboat runs before the wind with a constant speed of 1.7 m/s in a dircetion 43.4 (degrees) north of west. how far west has the sailboat traveled in 35 min in km and how far north has the sailboat traveled in 35 min in km?

i was using V=Vo + at to find the acceleration and than use x=1/2 at^2 + Vot + Xo to find the distance.

There is no acceleration when you travel with constant speed.

 

[hurtingBrain]

so how would i solve the problem?

 

[kuruman]

Use the equation that you posted with a = 0. Then you need to find the "west" and "north" components of the displacements vector. If that is what you did and the answer didn't come out, then you have to show us exactly what you did so that we can determine where you went wrong. It could be something silly like forgetting to convert 35 minutes to seconds or kilometers to meters.

 

[hurtingBrain]

which equation? the x=1/2at + Vot + Xo that one?

 

[kuruman]

Yes, it becomes

x = x₀ + v_0xt in the y direction and
y = y₀ + v_0yt n the y direction.

 

[hurtingBrain]

thanks for the help :D