document.write( "Question 826255: Sir/Madam;
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document.write( " A pleasant day! Kindly help me with this word problem about Law of Cosines. here it is:
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document.write( " Two ships leave harbor at 9:00 AM in the directions S 72°W and S 25°E at 27 kph and 35 kph respectively. How far apart are they at 9:55 AM?
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document.write( " Thank you very much for your help! \n" );
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Algebra.Com's Answer #497974 by rothauserc(4718)![]() ![]() You can put this solution on YOUR website! Note that both angles are measured from the y axis south of the x axis. 72 degrees south west is measured clockwise from the y axis and 25 degrees south east is measured from the y axis counter clockwise. \n" ); document.write( "We use rate * time = distance to calculate two sides of our triangle and note that the third side is the distance between our two ships. \n" ); document.write( "Note that both ships are sailing for 55 minutes and the rates are given in kilometers per hour. \n" ); document.write( "side 1 = 27 * 55/60 = 24.75 \n" ); document.write( "side 2 = 35 * 55/60 = 32.08 \n" ); document.write( "also add 72 and 25 to get the angle between side 1 and side 2 and \n" ); document.write( "we have side angle side (SAS) information about the triangle \n" ); document.write( "we can now use the law of cosines \n" ); document.write( "c^2 = a^2 +b^2 - 2ab * cosine(C) \n" ); document.write( "c^2 = (24.75)^2 +(32.08)^2 - 2*(24.75)*(32.08)*cosine(97) \n" ); document.write( "c^2 = 612.56 + 1029.13 - 1587.96*(-0.12) \n" ); document.write( "c^2 = 1832.25 \n" ); document.write( "c = 42.80 \n" ); document.write( "our two ships are 42.8 kilometers apart after sailing for 55 minutes \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " |