A ship sailed from a port, A, on a bearing of N56°E covering a distance of 85km to another Port B . How far is the ship now due north from Port A?

1 answer

To find how far the ship is now due north from Port A, we need to find the north component of the ship's displacement.

The bearing of N56°E means that the ship sailed in a direction 56° east of north.

We can break down the displacement vector into its north and east components using trigonometry.

The north component is given by the formula:
north component = displacement * cos(angle)

In this case, the displacement is 85 km and the angle is 56°.

north component = 85 km * cos(56°)

Using a calculator, the north component is approximately 51.13 km.

Therefore, the ship is now approximately 51.13 km due north from Port A.