Exploring a Cave: Finding the Resultant Displacement

[balling12]

Homework Statement

While exploring a cave, a spelunker starts at the entrance and moves the following distances: 75.0 m north, 295 m east, 190 m at an angle 30.0° north of east, and 150 m south. Find the resultant displacement from the cave entrance.

 

[LowlyPion]

So what are your thoughts on how to approach it?

 

[balling12]

im not really sure. in my physics class the only problems we worked with had either one or two vectors. but this one has four so I am clueless.

 

[berkeman]

im not really sure. in my physics class the only problems we worked with had either one or two vectors. but this one has four so I am clueless.

Just keep adding them up, being careful with the signs of the components. Draw a diagram first -- that should help.

 

[mikelepore]

When adding four vectors graphically, some people, out of habit, will add two of them, then take the resultant and add the third vector to it, then take that resultant and add the fourth vector to it. But it might be easier to draw all four vectors at once, with the tip of one vector connected to the tail of the next one. Here's a picture of someone adding THREE vectors by the tip-to-tail method: http://www.compadre.org/precollege/items/detail.cfm?ID=7783