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Physics Homework Question?

A truck drives up a hill with a 15° incline. If the truck has a constant

speed of 22 m/s, what are the horizontal and vertical components of the

truck’s velocity?

Explanation of steps would be greatly appreciated

1 Answer

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    simple trigonometry

    imagine the hill as a triangle.

    after 1 second, the truck will have gone 22 m..... that is the hypotenuse of the triangle

    the 15° is the hypotenuse in relation to the horizontal component

    the horizontal component will be the 'adjacent' to the angle

    the vertical component will be the 'opposite' to the angle

    you can use sine function to find the opposite

    sin 15 = opposite/22

    22(sin 15) = opposite = 5.69

    and the adjacent by the cosine rule

    cos 15 = adjacent/22

    22(cos 15) = adjacent = 21.25

    these are already in metres..... and as you have used 1 second as the basis for the calculation the units are already m/s

    horizontal component = 21.25 m/s

    Vertical component = 5.69 m/s

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