Question

A pilot is flying at a speed of 300 miles per hour and the wind is blowing due north at 50 miles per hour.What is the magnitude of the resultant velocity of the plane?

Answers

depends on which direction the plane is heading. The speed could be anywhere between 250 and 350 mph.
300 mph on what heading?

Usually you give the direction a wind is coming from, like a North wind caries you south.
Here do you mean it blows you North?

In any case use vector components
North component = 50 + 300 cos A
East component = 300 sin A
where A is the heading angle clockwise from north

magnitude = sqrt(north comp^2+east comp^2)

Related Questions