27/02/2016 ALEKS Kwadwo Amankwa - 02/27/2016 7:48:50 AM PST - Copyright 2016 UC Regents and ALEKS Corporation

Kwadwo Amankwa - 02/27/2016 7:48:50 AM PST

PreCalculus / Amankwa, Kwadwo (Amankwa)
1.

Finding the magnitude and direction of a vector given its graph

Find the magnitude of the vector given below. Also find the measure (in degrees) of
the acute angle formed by the vector and the x-axis.

Do not round any intermediate computations, and round your responses to 2

decimal places.
y
x

1 1 2 3 4 5 6

Consider the right triangle shown in Figure y

1. X =5 x

1 1 2 3 4 5 6
The hypotenuse is the given vector.

The length X of the leg along the x-axis 1

equals 5.
2
The length Y of the leg parallel to the y-
axis equals 6. 3 Y =6
R
The magnitude of a vector is the length of 4

that vector.
Let R be the magnitude of the given 5

vector.
6
We can use the Pythagorean Theorem to
find R.
Figure 1
2 2
=X +Y
https://www.aleks.com/alekscgi/x/Isl.exe/1o_u-IgNsIkwVvH23goJ62qV2MzozURpazBUVpfpndjuhACwtG986MNSwXZF58W-2EJkqcq 1/2
27/02/2016 ALEKS Kwadwo Amankwa - 02/27/2016 7:48:50 AM PST - Copyright 2016 UC Regents and ALEKS Corporation

2
R

2 2
=5 +6
= 61

Using a calculator, we compute R as follows.

Note that R must be nonnegative as it represents a length.

R= 61
= 7.8102...
7.81

Using the definition of tangent, we get the following.

Y 6
tan = =
X 5

Therefore, we can use arctangent to find .

6
= arctan = 50.1944... 50.19
5
Here is the answer.

magnitude of the vector: 7.81

= 50.19

Copyright 2016 UC Regents and ALEKS Corporation

https://www.aleks.com/alekscgi/x/Isl.exe/1o_u-IgNsIkwVvH23goJ62qV2MzozURpazBUVpfpndjuhACwtG986MNSwXZF58W-2EJkqcq 2/2