Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Part I
Relative Velocity
Velocity of A relative to B: VAB=VA-VB vAB : v of A with respect to B vB : v of B with respect to a reference frame (ex.: the ground) vA : v of A with respect to a reference frame (ex.: the ground)
Example 1
The white speed boat has a velocity of 30km/h,N, and the yellow boat a velocity of 25km/h, N, both with respect to the ground. What is the relative velocity of the white boat with respect to the yellow boat? Answer: 5km/h, N
Example 2 -continued
The passenger decides to approach the driver with a velocity of 1 m/s, N, with respect to the bus, while the bus is moving at 5m/s, N. What is the velocity of the passenger with respect to the ground? Answer: 6m/s, N
Resultant Velocity
The resultant velocity is the net velocity of an object with respect to a reference frame.
Constant velocity in each of two dimensions (example: boat & river, plane and wind) Projectiles (constant velocity in one dimension and constant acceleration in the other dimension)
Vectors can be moved parallel to themselves. Their magnitude and direction is still the same. The order of vector addition does not effect the resultant (commutative property).
Move one vector parallel to itself, so that its head is adjacent to the tail of the other vector. Draw the resultant by starting at the first tail and ending at the last head.
A
Resultant
Resultant
Place the vectors tail to tail forming a parallelogram. Draw the diagonal from the two tails. This is the resultant.
A Resultant
Note
If the drawing is done to scale, measure the resultant. Convert the value of the resultant using the scale of the drawing.
Resultant
-B
Part II
Constant velocity in each of two dimensions (example: boat & river, plane and wind)
Velocity of River with respect to the ground
Draw the vector diagram and draw the resultant. Use the Pythagorean Theorem to calculate the resultant. Use =tan-1(y/x) to find the angle between the horizontal and the resultant, to give the direction of the resultant. (00 is along the +x axis)
Example: The constant velocities in each of the two dimensions of the boat & river problem, are independent of each other.
Velocity of Boat in Still Water
a)
b)