Thursday, July 30, 2009

Vectors? I hate these things...just confusing, haha?

Vector B is in the third quadrant, therefore its x and y components are negative. If B's direction is 246 (counter-clockwise from the positive x-axis) then which expression best describes B's x-component?





a)B cos(246)


b)B sin (66)


c)B sin (246)


d)B cos (66)


e)B tan (66)


f) B tan (246)

Vectors? I hate these things...just confusing, haha?
the x component of a vector is always calculated by it's size multiplied by the cosine of the angle between the positive x-axis and the vector (counter clockwise....)


so (a) is the right answer.





note that cos(246) is a negitive quantity so we don't have to worry about plus or minus sign...
Reply:B cos(246)
Reply:Letter (a). Of course, the answer is negative because


cos(246 degrees) is negative.


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