Ahiker walks 3.3km at an angle of 40 degrees north of west. then, the hiker walks 3.4km at an angle of 60 degrees north of west. what is the hiker's total displacement

Answer

6.6 km

The description of the problem is shown in the attached figure, where the line "d" represents the final displacement vector.

First, the trekker walked 3.3km in a 40 ° direction, as shown in the figure. We can write this vector in its Cartesian coordinates:

Then the hiker walked 3.4 km in a 60 degree northwest direction.

We can write this as a vector in its Cartesian coordinates:

.

When adding this two vectors we will obtain the final displacement "d"

To obtain the magnitude of this vector we calculate its module:

Then the magnitude of the final displacement was:

6.6 km

Is a  vector quantity  that refers to "the rate at which an object changes its position." imagine a person moving rapidly - one step forward and one step back - always returning to the original starting position. while this might result in a frenzy of activity, it would result in a zero velocity. because the person always returns to the original position, the motion would never result in a change in position. since velocity is defined as the rate at which the position changes, this motion results in zero velocity. if a person in motion wishes to maximize their velocity, then that person must make every effort to maximize the amount that they are displaced from their original position. every step must go into moving that person further from where he or she started. for certain, the person should never change directions and begin to return to the starting position.