- #1
Imperator
- 5
- 0
Homework Statement
A man pushing a mop across a floor causes it to undergo two displacements. The first has a magnitude of 150 cm and makes an angle of 130° with the positive x axis. The resultant displacement has a magnitude of 136 cm and is directed at an angle of 40.0° to the positive x axis. Find the magnitude and direction of the second displacement.
The Attempt at a Solution
I was able to figure out the magnitude through trial and error. I thought because it says to find the second displacement, and not the resultant displacement that Pythagoreans formula would not work, but it did. sqrt(150^2+136^2) gave me 202.5cm and the online homework accepted it as the right answer.
Because it did accept it as the right answer, I'm very confused. I thought the resultant displacement was the net displacement of one and two (the hypotenuse), but since the Pythagorean formula worked, I can't visualize what the displacements should look like in my head. I tried creating an arbitrary triangle and setting opposite equal to 130 and adjacent to 150 and then using arctan to find the angle, but it came back as incorrect. Now I have no idea how to find the direction of the 202.5 magnitude displacement.
Please help! I refuse to stop for the night until I figure this problem out.