I'm stuck right now can anybody figure this out ?A ship is 31 miles west and 9 miles south of a harbor. What bearing should the captain set to sail directly to harbor ?The answer is N 73.8° E. I just dont know how to get there ...Any help is greatly appreciated !!
Imagine it as a triangle. You want the angle, you have the opposite and the adjacent. So using SOHCAHTOA, you work out you need tan. So tan = opp/adj tan = 31/9 tan = 0.29 tan^-1(3.44) = 73.8
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Hurrah, that's what I was looking for! Thanks to author of this question.
Have you studied sine, cosine and tangent yet? Navigation uses right angled triangles, so sketch the triangle by drawing west from the harbor then south. Draw back to the harbor again to finish the triangle, and label the lengths you know. Conveniently, the bearing is the angle at the bottom. (Compass bearings are measured clockwise from a line pointing north.) The tangent of an angle is the length of the opposite side over the adjacent. So divide 31 miles by 9 miles. 31/9 = 3.444. Make sure your calculator is set to degrees, and press the arctan (tan-1) button. Arctan means the angle whose tangent is.
