I'm trying to get my head around the following problem, any help is appreciated. My maths skills aren't the best, so apologies in advanced for its stupidity.
Say I'm in a car, and I'm driving directly towards a stationary car (Car A) at 5 meters per second. Every second I get 5 meters closer to Car A, obviously.
Now, say there's another stationary car behind me (Car B) to the right at a 45 degree angle. Every second I measure my distance to Car B, as well.
My rate of change to Car A is consistent at 5 meters per second, yet, correct me if I'm wrong, my rate of change to Car B varies from second to second. For every second measured, my distance to Car B has changed by a different increment, as compared to the previous measurement. It's not a smooth change, second by second.
Why is this? What is it about the angles that causes my rate of change to Car A to be consistent, but my rate of change to Car B to differ?
Many thanks for any clarification,
Steven
Think how you measuring angle. Now Cars are travelling in 2 D dimension (Since cars don't fly) angle $$tan \theta = \frac{y-distance-difference}{x -distance -difference}$$. Assume your car (say P) starts by origin and car A at some where at Y axis and car B is on $y=tan({\pi \over 4}) .x$ . Now you if you see after some time x distance is constant from car P to A and it is zero , that's why angle is constant and it is also zero. but if you see both distances from car B are changing.