a hot air balloon is rising vertically 10 ft/sec while the wind is blowing horizontally 5ft/sec. Find the speed of the balloon and the angle x that it makes with the horizontal.

I know that the speed of the balloon is
the square root of (10)^2 + (5)^2, but I was wondering if someone could tell me why the speed is equal to that. Thanks.

1 answer

Every second the balloon rises 10 ft and moves sideways 5 feet.

So, the distance traveled in one second is sqrt(10^2 + 5^2)

Since it traveled that distance in one second, and speed is distance/time, the same triangle can be used to calculate the speed.