Problem 27.

A plane flies 955 km due east, then turns due north and flies another 469 km. Draw an x-y axis at the starting point with the positive x-axis pointing east, and determine the polar coordinates of the plane's finale position.

Solution:

The positive x-axis is pointing east, while the positive y-axis is pointing north. Then the final position of the plane has coordinate:

x-coordinate is 955 km,

y-coordinate is 469 km.

Then the polar angle can be found from the equation:

Then .