CALCULUS III: An airplane pilot wishes to maintain a true course in the direction 240 degrees with a ground speed of 400 mph when the wind is blowing directly north at 50 mph. Find the required airspeed and compass heading.

Question

CALCULUS III:  An airplane pilot wishes to maintain a true course in the direction 240 degrees with a ground speed of 400 mph when the wind is blowing directly north at 50 mph.  Find the required airspeed and compass heading.

zepdrix · Answer

|dw:1377127240478:dw|So 240 degrees is somewhere around here right?

zepdrix · Answer

|dw:1377127299909:dw|Ground speed would be our x-component? :O
Or are we supposed to be drawing this in R3?

zepdrix · Answer

hmm

anonymous · Answer

I missed part of the question. Here, I'll edit it.

anonymous · Answer

So basically, because the wind speed, don't we need to subtract the vector of the wind speed from the vector of the ground speed to get where they want to go?

zepdrix · Answer

Mmm I think we should ignore that 400 that I drew.
If we're thinking of this in terms of directions, then x to the left represents movement east, not movement along the ground.. lemme try to redraw that a sec..

zepdrix · Answer

|dw:1377127726553:dw|