Plane Curvilinear Motion: x-y Coordinates - Example Problem 3.1-5

 

A fishing boat wishes to reach the other side of a briskly flowing river. The boat attempts to travel straight across the river, but the strength of the current pushes the boat downstream during the crossing. As a result of the river’s current, the velocity of the boat has components in the y- as well as the x-direction. If the velocity of the boat relative to the shore is a constant v_b = (5i - 2j) m/s and the river is 100 meters wide, what is the distance d that the boat is pushed downstream during its crossing?

 

 

Given:

• v_b = (5i - 2j) m/s = constant
• w = 100 m = width of the river

 

Find: d

 

Solution:

 

In this situation, the x- and y-components of the boat's velocity are independent of each other. What does this mean?

 

The x-direction velocity doesn't figure into our calculations.
We can look at the problem as two rectilinear problems, one in the x-direction and one in the y-direction.
Nothing