0.5 2.6 addition of velocities  (Page 3/9)

and

We can use the first of these two equations to find $v_{\text{w}x}$ :

Because $v_{\text{tot}}=\text{38}\text{.}\mathrm{0\; m}/\text{s}$ and $\text{cos 110º}=–0.342$ we have

The minus sign indicates motion west which is consistent with the diagram.

Now, to find $v_{\text{w}\text{y}}$ we note that

Here $v_{\text{tot}y}=v_{\text{tot}}\text{sin 110º}$ ; thus,

This minus sign indicates motion south which is consistent with the diagram.

Now that the perpendicular components of the wind velocity $v_{\text{w}x}$ and $v_{\text{w}y}$ are known, we can find the magnitude and direction of ${\mathbf{\text{v}}}_{\text{w}}$ . First, the magnitude is

so that

The direction is:

giving

Discussion

The wind’s speed and direction are consistent with the significant effect the wind has on the total velocity of the plane, as seen in [link] . Because the plane is fighting a strong combination of crosswind and head-wind, it ends up with a total velocity significantly less than its velocity relative to the air mass as well as heading in a different direction.

Note that in both of the last two examples, we were able to make the mathematics easier by choosing a coordinate system with one axis parallel to one of the velocities. We will repeatedly find that choosing an appropriate coordinate system makes problem solving easier. For example, in projectile motion we always use a coordinate system with one axis parallel to gravity.

Summary

• Velocities in two dimensions are added using the same analytical vector techniques, which are rewritten as
  $v_x=v\text{cos}\theta$
  $v_y=v\text{sin}\theta$
  $v=\sqrt{v_x^2+v_y^2}$
  $\theta ={\text{tan}}^{-1}(v_y/v_x).$
• Relative velocity is the velocity of an object as observed from a particular reference frame, and it varies dramatically with reference frame.
• Relativity is the study of how different observers measure the same phenomenon, particularly when the observers move relative to one another. Classical relativity is limited to situations where speed is less than about 1% of the speed of light (3000 km/s).

Conceptual questions

Problems&Exercises