How far is the boat from where it started?
February 3, 2010 | Boats & Boating
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Re: “How far is the boat from where it started?”
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5 mi.
Draw the diagram. You should end up with an obtuse triangle with sides of 4 and 2.236. It should have an obtuse angle of 116.57 degrees.
Use cosine law to figure out the remaining side. You should get 5mi if my calculations are right… Hope that helps!
I got 5.39 using the law of cosines and then double checked it with vector addition.
c^2 = a^2 + b^2 - 2abcos(angle)
c^2 = (4)^2 + (2.236)^2 - 2(4)(2.236)cos(116.57 degrees)
c = 5.426 mi