Precalculus Module 10: Investigation 3 Adding Vectors Geometrically 3. Have you ever been driving a car when a gust of wind pushes against the vehicle? The wind wants to push the car in the direction it's blowing, and you might have had to correct the car's direction with the steering wheel to keep it in the correct lane. Since the car's tires are in contact with the ground the car is able to resist much of the potential influence of the wind and the effect is often relatively small. When an airplane is flying and encounters wind, however, it doesn't have the benefit of ground contact to create friction that can resist the effects of wind. Therefore an airplane can easily be blown off course by a strong wind unless the pilot corrects his course. a. Suppose an airplane is flying 215 mph with a heading 40 west of north (130 measured counterclockwise from the 3 o'clock position) when it encounters a 50 mph wind blowing steadily in a direction 10 east of south (280 measured counterclockwise from the 3 o'clock position). Using v to represent the speed vector of the airplane and w to represent the speed vector of the wind, draw v and w in a head-to-tail configuration and the resultant vector v + w. North 200 150 100 50 West_200-150-100-50 50 100 150 200 x East -50 -100 150 -200 South b. Estimate the magnitude and direction of v + w and explain what this tells us. 4. Three people are playing the Ring Game. In this game each player grabs a large ring and attempts to pull it into his/her own scoring section. Player A's Scoring Zone Player B's Scoring B Zone Player C's Scoring Zone Page 3