57. A chimpanzee sitting against his favorite tree gets up and walks 51 m due east and 39 m due south to reach a termite mound, where he eats lunch. (a) What is the shortest distance between the tree and the termite mound? (b) What angle does the shortest distance make with respect to due east?

 

Here is the vectors and their relationships

This is a simple two vectors at right angle, so use Pythagorean theorem and the shortest distance and direction is found as follows:

 

 

 

So the Shortest path is

 

 

Please send any comments or questions about this page to ddonovan@nmu.edu

This page last updated on January 11, 2020