Question

1. Two people are pushing a disabled car. One exerts a force of 200 N East, the other a force of 250 N East. What is the net force exerted on the car?
2. Two hockey players strike a puck simultaneously from opposite sides. Red #3 hits it with 40 N of force to the right, while Blue #5 hits it with 63 N. What is the net force on the puck?
3. An airplane heads due north at 100 m/s through a 30 m/s cross wind blowing from east to west. Determine the resultant velocity of the airplane.

Answer 1

add the vectors with direction: ie, 10N+20S+43E=(10-20)N+43E. If the result is in two directions, since they are at 90 degrees, you will have a resultant at an angle. You can do the angle graphically, or with trig
angle(from N) = arctan( E/N) where E and N are those components.
Magnitude=sqrt(N^2 + E^2) or Magnitude=E/sinAngle

Answer 2

as a general rule, I recommend using geographic coordiantes, measuring angles from 000 (N), clockwise (090 is E); 180 is S, 270 is W. It greatly helps you find the angles.