Trigonometry (10th Edition)

Published by Pearson
ISBN 10: 0321671775
ISBN 13: 978-0-32167-177-6

Chapter 7 - Applications of Trigonometry and Vectors - Section 7.4 Vectors, Operations, and the Dot Product - 7.4 Exercises - Page 331: 93

Answer

The magnitude of $u+v$ is 9.5 The direction of $u+v$ is $119^{\circ}$ (measured counterclockwise from the positive x-axis).

Work Step by Step

Let $u = 12$ Let $v = 3$ Let angle $\theta$ be the angle between these two vectors. Then $\theta = 260^{\circ}-110^{\circ} = 150^{\circ}$ Let $c = u+v$. We can use $u$ and $v$ to complete the parallelogram. Note that the angle $C$ opposite the side $c$ has a value of $C = 180^{\circ}-150^{\circ} = 30^{\circ}$. We can use the law of cosines to find $c$, the magnitude of $u+v$: $c^2 = a^2+b^2-2ab~cos~C$ $c = \sqrt{a^2+b^2-2ab~cos~C}$ $c = \sqrt{(12)^2+(3)^2-(2)(12)(3)~cos~30^{\circ}}$ $c = \sqrt{90.646}$ $c = 9.5$ The magnitude of $u+v$ is 9.5 Let $V$ be the angle between $u$ and $u+v$. We can use the law of sines to find the angle $V$: $\frac{c}{sin~C} = \frac{v}{sin~V}$ $sin~V = \frac{v~sin~C}{c}$ $sin~V = \frac{3~sin~30}{9.5}$ $sin~V = 0.15789$ $V = arcsin(0.15789)$ $V = 9^{\circ}$ The direction of $u+v$ is $110^{\circ}+9^{\circ}$ which is $119^{\circ}$ measured counterclockwise from the positive x-axis.
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