Velocity Vector?

Question

You drive a car 1500 ft to the east, then 2500 ft to the north. If the trip took 3.0 minutes, what was the direction and magnitude of your average velocity?

Answer 1

If you are on the equator, this answer will be most accurate, but still not perfect, since the earth is spherical.

YOu moved to a point (1500, 2500) in three minutes.
This is 2915 feet from your starting position, so the magnitude of your average velocity is 972
Your direction is arc-tangent(2500/1500), or 59 degrees North of East, or a true compass direction of 031

Answer 2

Use pythagorus to get the magnitude of your displacement.

Then divide by time to get velocity.

To get the direction, take the arctan of (y/x) and use your common sense to resolve the ambiguity.

Arctan(2500/1500) = Arctan(5/3) = whatever angle (measured counterclockwise from +x (right, east).

Answer 3

if you define east as positive x direction and north as positive y you will have
(x,y)=(1500/3 , 2500/3) ft/min