Question

A person swims 6.4 meters persecond north while beingpushed by a current movingwest at 2.1 meters per second.What is the magnitude of theswimmer's resultant vector?Hint: Draw a vector diagram.[?] m/sRound your answer to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

First let's draw the diagram indicating each vector and the resultant vector:

To calculate the magnitude of the resultant vector, we can use the Pythagorean theorem, because the angle between the vectors is 90°:

$\begin{gathered} R^2=6.4^2+2.1^2\\ \\ R^2=40.96+4.41\\ \\ R^2=45.37\\ \\ R=6.7 \end{gathered}$

Therefore the magnitude of the swimmer's resultant vector is 6.7 m/s.