Projectile motion of a sailboat

AI Thread Summary
A sailboat traveling at a constant speed of 3.9 m/s in a direction 44 degrees north of west was analyzed for its travel distance over 23 minutes. The total time converted to seconds is 1380, resulting in a hypotenuse distance of 5382 meters. The calculations for the westward and northward distances were performed using cosine and sine functions, yielding 3900 meters west and 3700 meters north, both rounded to two significant figures. A potential oversight in the solution was the need to convert the final distances to kilometers. The discussion emphasizes the importance of unit conversion in physics problems.
pierra
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Homework Statement



A sailboat runs before the wind with a constant speed of 3.9m/s in a direction 44 north of west.
How far west has the sailboat traveled in 23min ?
How far north has the sailboat traveled in 23min ?
Answer in two sigfigs

Homework Equations



hypothesis*cos(theta)=x
hypothesis*sin(theta)=y


The Attempt at a Solution



23min=1380seconds
3.9*1380=5382(the length of hypothesis)

Sailboat traveled distance of WEST in 23min : 5382*cos(44)=3871.486805
two sigfigs : 3900

Sailboat traveled distance of NORTH in23min: 5382*sin(44)=3738.65136
two sigfigs : 3700

*:multiply

I solve like this but its wrong.
What did I do wrong?
 
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Welcome to PF!

Welcome to PF! :smile:

(it's hypotenuse! :wink: :biggrin:)
pierra said:
A sailboat runs before the wind with a constant speed of 3.9m/s in a direction 44 north of west.
How far west has the sailboat traveled in 23min ?
How far north has the sailboat traveled in 23min ?
Answer in two sigfigs
…
Sailboat traveled distance of WEST in 23min : 5382*cos(44)=3871.486805
two sigfigs : 3900

Sailboat traveled distance of NORTH in23min: 5382*sin(44)=3738.65136
two sigfigs : 3700

hmm … looks ok to me :smile: …

do they want you to convert to km?
 


Thanks for reply!

I forgot to convert that to km. :)
 

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