Is the Distance Between Two Moving Boats Changing Over Time?

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on calculating the changing distance between two boats, A and B, which start 800 miles apart. Boat A moves east at 40 mph, while Boat B moves north at 20 mph. After 7 hours, the distance between the boats is determined to be approximately 538.516 miles using the distance formula based on their respective coordinates. The analysis employs component vector analysis to establish the positions of the boats over time.

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1. Two boats start out 800 miles apart with boat A directly to the west of boat B. At the same time both boats start moving with boat A traveling to the east at 40mph while boat B travels north at 20mph. Determine if the distance between the boats is increasing, decreasing, or not changing after the following travel times: (a) 7 hours (b) 16 hours (c) 25 hours



2. I attempted to break apart their distances traveled by using component vector analysis. The distance between the two boats is the hypotenuse of whatever triangle they produce on the graph at a certain time. We want to find d'.



3. d'=? I park boat A at origin, therefore its cartesian coordinates are (0, 0), so boat B must be at (0, 800)

For part (a) I use vector components: A in x-direction: 400(7)=280 x-direction
So A is at (280, 0) since it does change in relation to y-axis (vice-versa for B)
B in y-direction: 20(7)=140 so B is (800, 140)
Base distance is 800-280=520 Height is just 140
I got the distance between them by using the distance formula: d=square root(520^2 + 140^2)= 538.516miles


How do I proceed to find h' ?
 
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From what I know, we can not use properties of similar triangles since the boats are moving at different rates.
 

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