Alex was pestering his little sister the other day. Unfortunately, she had in her possession a couple of water balloons. Alex runs away at 3 m/s. First, he runs for 2 seconds directly away from her (0 degrees). Then he remembers from all the good movies the he needed to zig-zag to decrease the chance of being hit. So he zigs at 25 degrees for 3 seconds. Then he zags for 5 seconds at -45 degrees. If his sister has excellent aim, how far and in what direction would she have to throw the water balloon to hit Alex 10 seconds after he runs away?

Question

anonymous · Answer

what awful problem!

jmartinez638 · Answer

:) Do you have any help for a pained student?

anonymous · Answer

Really is, but let me try to assist LOL

anonymous · Answer

I can see she has to through NE direction, at an angle

jmartinez638 · Answer

:s it's pretty weird, eh

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

have you tried using trig and coordinate geometry?

jmartinez638 · Answer

No... I'm more looking into physics related vector formulas, but I just don't know exactly what to do.

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

Ok step 1) start at the origin (0,0)

"Alex runs away at 3 m/s. First, he runs for 2 seconds directly away from her (0 degrees)."

how far, in meters, has he run?

jmartinez638 · Answer

6 meters

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

if Alex started at (0,0) where does he end up after running 6 meters to the east?

jmartinez638 · Answer

0,6

jmartinez638 · Answer

sorry for the late response...

jmartinez638 · Answer

Any help appreciated

jmartinez638 · Answer

^^^^^^

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

that's fine, no it's not (0,6) but you're close

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

it's actually (6,0) and hopefully you see why?

jmartinez638 · Answer

Oh yeah, just a stupid mistake :P

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

|dw:1446176885105:dw|

jim_thompson5910 · Answer

ok next he turns 25 degrees and runs for 3 seconds

|dw:1446176936964:dw|

what is the value of x? ie, how far does he run from (6,0) to point P?