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 January 15th, 2017, 07:54 AM #1 Newbie   Joined: Jan 2017 From: Warrington Posts: 2 Thanks: 0 Ship problem Hi, complete new comer to this forum and not quite sure this is the right place to ask a new question? Here goes anyway: If a ship steams southeast at 20 knots across a current flowing towards 060° at 2 knots, what is its position relative to its starting position after 1 hour? I'm assuming it's going to be easiest to solve with a vector diagram, I'm just not quite sure how you'd draw it. Thanks in advance.
January 15th, 2017, 08:25 AM   #2
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Relative to the +x-axis, SE is (-45 degrees) and direction 060 is (30 degrees)

ship's path relative to the water + current = ship's path relative to the Earth

$\vec{S} + \color{blue}{\vec{C}} = \color{red}{\vec{E}}$

you can solve this using the Law of Cosines/Sines, or you can solve it using the method of vector components.

sketch attached ...
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