Question
A motor boat is racing towards north at 25 km/hr and the water current in the river is 10 km/hr in the direction 60° east of south. Find the resultant velocity of the boat.
Solution
Let be the velocities of boat and river water respectively.
Let be the resultant velocity of boat.
Boat heads towards north and water current is in the direction east of south.
Therefore, the angle between is
Now using parllelogram law of vector addition, the magnitude of resultant velocity is ,
Let the resultant velocity vector subtend an angle with the north.
Then,
This implies,