Problema Solution
Starting at the same point in a forest, two hikers take different paths. The first hiker walks due north at a speed of 3 miles per hour. The second hiker walks 60 degrees west of north at a speed of 4 miles per hour. How far apart are the hikers after 1 hour?
Answer provided by our tutors
So draw a diagram. They start off at the same point, but one goes North, while the other goes 60 degrees west of North. So it forms an angle of 60 degrees to the left of the first traveler. Now, since they only travel for an hour, both their distances are just their speed. So one traveled 3 miles, the other traveled 4. Now to find the distance between them, just connect the two points to form a triangle. Now you have 2 sides of 3 and 4 with the angle in between them-60 degrees.
Use Law of Cosine to solve for the third side.
c^2=9+16-2(3)(4)cos60
The answer is 3.61 miles apart.