Solve the given problems. Use a ruler and protractor as in Examples 6 and 7. A jet travels 17 km in a straight line as it also descends 8 km. It then turns upward and travels 10 km in a straight line until it reaches its original altitude, all in an easterly direction. What is the jet’s displacement from its original position?

Data from Example 6

Two persons pull horizontally on ropes attached to a car that is stuck in mud. One person pulls with a force of 500 N directly to the right, while the other person pulls with a force of 350 N at an angle of 40° from the first force, as shown in Fig. 9.8(a). Find the resultant force on the car.

We make a scale drawing of the forces as shown in Fig. 9.8(b), measuring the magnitudes of the forces with a ruler and the angles with a protractor. [The scale drawing of the forces is made larger and with a different scale than that in Fig. 9.8(a) in order to get better accuracy.] We then complete the parallelogram and draw in the diagonal that represents the resultant force. Finally, we find that the resultant force is about 800 N and that it acts at an angle of about 16° from the first force.

(a) (b) Car 350 N 350 N 40 16 500 N 500 N 800 N Fig. 9.8