An airplane flies towards $149^\circ$ at $525km/h$. What is the component of the plane's velocity a) toward $90^\circ$? b) toward $180^\circ$?
I know how to find the horizontal component and vertical component. Respectively, they are: $525*\cos(149)$ and $525\sin(149)$. What I don't understand is what does "toward $90^\circ$" and "toward $180^\circ$" mean? I have never seen a question stated this way before and could not find it anywhere else.
Thanks Bhaumik Patel
The problem just states the direction of the axes. If you draw these on paper, the 90$^\circ$ axis points up on the page, the 180$^\circ$ points towards left. But this is a pretty simple case. The problem could have asked you to calculate components along any axis, say 45$^\circ$. The way to get the answer is 525*cos(149-45). Just to verify that this is correct, the "horizontal" component is at 0$^\circ$, so 525*cos(149-0)=525*cos(149). The "vertical" component is at 90$^\circ$, so 525*cos(149-90)=525*sin(149)