Physics Questions?

Question

1. A radar antenna is tracking a saetellite orbiting the earth. At a certain time, the radar screen shows the satellite to be 162 km away. The radar antenna is pointing upward at an angle of 62.3 degrees from the ground. Find the x and y components (in km) of the position of the satellite.

2. The altitude of a hang glider is increasing at a rate of 6.8 m/s. At the same time, the shadow of the glider moves along the ground at a speed of 15.5 m/s when the sun is directly overhead. Find the magnitude of the glider's velocity.

Thanks...

Answer 1

You can use scale drawing or Pythagoras Theorem or the trigonometric ratios (you do not need the cosine rule since the triangles are all right-triangles).

I'll demonstrate with Question 2.

SCALE DRAWING: Draw a vertical line AB, 6.8 cm (1 cm = 1 m/s). From the below end of this line (B), draw a horizontal line 15.5 cm (same scale), BC. Complete the parallelogram (rectangle in this case) with the fourth corner being D. Draw a diagonal from B to D, measure it , and multiply by the scale ( 1 in this case). That is your answer in m/s.

Pythagoras Theorem : Make a sketch of the above (not drawn to scale). You have to find the hypotenuse of the right-triangle BCD. That will be the square root of the sum of the square of the other two sides.

For #1.

Draw x and y axes, and write in zero. Measuring from the x axis with zero as the starting point, draw a slanting line 62.3 deg. 8.1 cm long (scale 1 cm =20 km). Label the outside end E. Drop a perpendicular from from E to the x axis. Measure that perpendicular and multiply by 20. Do the same thing for the horizontal.

You can use the sine ratio to calculate the vertical, and the cosine ratio to calculate the horizontal.

Answer 2

I have the answer but you need a graphing calculater to get the numerical value

square root of 6.8 squared plus 15.55 squared this is for number 2

number 1 is er I don't understand it