6.  One afternoon, a couple walks three-fourths of the way around a circular lake, the radius of which is 1.50 km. They start at the west side of the lake and head due south to begin with. (a) What is the distance they travel? (b) What are the magnitude and direction (relative to due east) of the couple’s displacement?

 

The situation described can be diagramed as follows:

The couple is walking counter-clockwise three-quarters of the way around the circle so they would walk a distance of three-quarters of the circumfrence

 

 

 

The x and y components are actually R long along x and y axis. 

 

 

So we have perpendicular components and we can use Pythagorean theorem.

 

 

 

 

 

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This page last updated on January 11, 2020