Motion into direction ship problem

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Homework Help Overview

The problem involves a ship navigating at sea, receiving signals from two transmitters, A and B, which are positioned 100 km apart. The ship's heading towards transmitter A is at a 30-degree angle south of east, while transmitter B is directly east of the ship. The objective is to calculate the distance from the ship to transmitter B.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Problem interpretation, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss the geometric representation of the problem by suggesting the construction of a triangle involving the ship and the two transmitters. There are attempts to clarify the positioning of the transmitters relative to the ship and each other.

Discussion Status

The discussion has progressed with participants exploring the geometric setup and relationships between the points. Some guidance has been provided regarding the use of trigonometric functions to find the distance, although no consensus has been reached on the final solution.

Contextual Notes

There is a mention of the lack of explicit equations provided in the original problem statement, which may affect the approach to solving it. Additionally, the original poster expresses difficulty in visualizing the problem setup.

sweet_girl123
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Homework Statement


You are the navigator of a ship at sea. You receive radio signal from 2 transmitters A & B which are 100 Km apart, one due south of other. The direction finder shows you that transmitter A is at a heading of 30 degree south of east from the ship. while transmitter B is due east. Calculate the distance between you ship and transmitter B.

Homework Equations


None


The Attempt at a Solution


Doesnot get the question . nt able to set up a diagram
 
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Welcome to PF, sweet_girl123! :smile:

Can you draw a triangle with A, B and the ship on the corners?

You have a number of clues what the triangle looks like.
I'll order them a bit for you:
1. B is due east of the ship, so B is to the right of the ship.
2. either A or B is due south of the other, so they are both on a vertical line.
3. A is 30 degrees down. This also means that A is below B.
4. A and B are 100 km apart.

Can you make a triangle of that?

After that we'll try to see what the requested distance is.
 
jjqq8m.png


This is what i think the triangle should be like...B to the east (Right) of ship and A to the south 30 degrees down.
 
Good! :smile:
And I like your picture!

Now the problem asks for "the distance between the ship and transmitter B."

For this you'd need the definition of the tangent function and apply it to what you know.
Do you know the definition of the tangent function?
 
I got the answer
tan(30)=100/x
solving the equation for 'x' we get
X= 173 km
 
Yep! :smile:

It seems you hardly needed help at all! :wink:
 

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