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gbean
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Homework Statement
Fred's friends are in a boat. If they could travel perpendicularly to the shore, they could land at his position. However, a strong current vc is greater than the maximum vm of the motor. Find the magnitude of the angle, measured relative to the straight-across direction, at which his friends should point the boat to minimize the distance Fred has to walk.
a) arcsin (vm/vc)
b) arctan (vc/vm)
c) tan (vc/vm)
d) arctan (sqrt(vc/vm))
Homework Equations
a^2 + b^2 = c^2
sin(theta) = opposite/hypotenuse (=> theta = arcsin(opposite/hypotenuse))
cos(theta) = adjacent/hypotenuse
tan(theta) = opposite/adjacent
vx = vcos(theta)
vy = vsin(theta)
v = vx+vy
The Attempt at a Solution
I tried to draw this out and I get that the angle is represented by theta = arctan(vm/vc).
I don't know what I'm doing wrong, please help!
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