What does north of south mean in a physics vector problem?

Question

I'm in physics and I'm so confused my teacher won't explain it good anybody can help me here?

Answer 1

Your teacher assumes you know what north and south mean on a map. It's just an easy reference, because you know an east vector is perpendicular to a north one, a west vector is also perpendicular to a north one but of opposite sign, and an up vector is perpendicular to all of them.

If you don't know what they mean on a map, educate yourself on that outside of class.

Answer 2

Well, I am also confused AND I AM A HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICS TEACHER!! I use bearing. That is very precise. "A plane flies at a bearing of 200 degrees at an average velocity of 600 km/hr for 2 hours, then ...."

I can understand NW, SE, NNE, etc : any direction separated by less than 90 degrees within the four main points of the compass (NEWS). But North and South are on opposite sides. If I had to guess, 'north of south' would be directly West. My reason: North of West is exactly midway between North and West. So, North of South would be exactly midway between North and South. And that would be West. But then again, it could be East! You did say this was a physics class??

Answer 3

22 i - 3 j value = sqrt(22^2 + 3^2) = sqrt(491) = 22.16 blocks direction = arctan (3/22) ...yet interior the third quadrant, because the truck actually went SW. So the direction is 187.8 stages CCW from east