SOLUTION: The geographic and magnetic north poles have different locations. Currently, the magnetic north pole is drifting westward through 0.0017 radian per year, where the angle of drift h

Algebra ->  Trigonometry-basics -> SOLUTION: The geographic and magnetic north poles have different locations. Currently, the magnetic north pole is drifting westward through 0.0017 radian per year, where the angle of drift h      Log On


   

Question 238707: The geographic and magnetic north poles have different locations. Currently, the magnetic north pole is drifting westward through 0.0017 radian per year, where the angle of drift has its vertex at the center of the Earth. If this movement continues, approximately how many years will it take for the magnetic north pole to drift a total of 5 degrees?
Answer by jsmallt9(3758) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Since the movement of the pole is given in radians, we should figure out how many radians are in 5 degress:
1 degree = pi%2F180 radians. So 5 degrees = 5%2A%28pi%2F180%29+=+pi%2F36 radians.

So now the problem is to find out how long it will take to pole to move pi%2F36 radians if it moves 0.0017 radians per year. So we will divide:
%28pi%2F36%29%2F0.0017
Changing this division to multiplying by the reciprocal may make this easier:
%28pi%2F36%29%2A%281%2F0.0017%29
which simplifies to:
pi%2F%2836%2A0.0017%29
You can use your calculator on this to get your answer. You should get about 51 years.