Question

A pedestrian walks 7.4 kilometers west

and then 9.2 kilometers south.
What is the magnitude of the
pedestrian's resultant vector?
Hint: Draw a vector diagram.
[ ? ] kilometers
Round your answer to the nearest tenth.

Answer 1

Answer: 11.8 km

Explanation:

The resulting figure is a right angled triangle shown below

`$$Apply the Pythagorean theorem to find out the magnitude of the resultant vector $A B$ in the triangle $A B C$ as follows -$$\begin{aligned}&A B^(2)=B C^(2)+C A^(2) \text { (Hypotenuse }{ }^(2)=\text { Base }^(2)+\text { Adjacent }^(2) \text { ) } \\&=7.4^(2)+9.2^(2) \\&=139.4 \\&A B=11.806777 \\&\quad A B \approx 11.8 \mathrm{~km} \text { (Rounded off to the nearest tenth) }\end{aligned}$$`